This blog has seen various commentary on why Michelle Rhee's plan, "Capital Gains," to pay students for good behavior and good grades was a bad idea (try here to see the ongoing conversation). Liam, in particular, was vehemently opposed to it in its New York City and Washington DC manifestations. Well it didn't work (or had "mixed results," ahem-hem) in NY and it doesn't appear to have worked in DC, either. When will Fryer, the plan's mastermind, give it a rest?
Today's Washington Post reports that behavior has improved but grades have not. The program has now completed a two week test run (where it appears no money was rewarded, only the points system was implmented to demonstrate how the system would work) and started officially (in all its glitzy, perverse incentivizing glory) yesterday. I enjoyed, in particular, this tidbit:
Betts and his staff did a two-week trial run this month to give teachers practice with the scoring system and to give students an idea of what would be expected to earn points. He said that the sixth- and seventh-graders were "right into it" and that attendance and punctuality ticked up. Grades did not.Eighth-graders, he said, are "crafty folk" and are likely to wait until the program ramps up before they make many changes. "They're like 'Jerry Maguire': 'Show me the money,' " he said.
And there, my friends, is the whole problem. Yes, this plan will tap into the little Jerry Maguires in all of us, but it will teach these kids zilch. And when the $2.7 million that has miraculously survived the recent advent of Great Depression Round II runs out, we'll be back at square one.
