For the past several years economists and educators have been studying the impact of incentives — monetary and other valuable gifts — on student performance. Now a recently launched Web site, GradeFund, takes the idea of incentives and aims to utilize them as a practical solution for paying for college.
Students aged 13 and up (including graduate school) can easily go online and create a profile with the objective of getting sponsors who contribute money for their good grades. Parents can create profiles for younger children. The students must upload official transcripts to verify grades. Sponsor pledges start at $5. They must direct the money to a specific student and specify the criteria, such as grades of A. The way the site is marketed is that the students are earning the money for college, although GradeFund does not presently monitor that.
Dr. Kirabo Jackson, assistant professor of labor economics at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, studied an incentive-driven program for high school students and teachers in Texas. The program, run by Advanced Placement Strategies, Inc. was implemented in high schools in largely low-income, inner-city areas where the majority of students are Hispanic or Black. The goal was to improve college readiness among the students by setting up a program to motivate them to take advanced placement courses.
Teachers were provided additional training and were given monetary rewards for students who passed AP exams, while students were given monetary rewards for passing.
“The program increased the number of students who were taking AP exams,” Jackson says. “It was also associated with an increase in the number of students who had high SAT scores.”
