Should students be paid for performance in school?
implement | motivate | undertake | incentive | enable
implement | motivate | undertake | incentive | enable
The school district in Detroit, Michigan, also experimented with an incentive program to motivate students to attend school. High school students with perfect attendance over a two-week period would earn a $200 gift card.
If there were 12 two-week periods during the course of the experiment, what was the maximum amount that each student could earn for perfect attendance?
A. $4,800
B. $400
C. $1,800
D. $2,400
Many different people have undertaken efforts to create better schools. Their ideas vary widely. Some schools are based on strict discipline, while others are based on student freedom. Some use complicated textbooks, while others use no textbooks at all. But no plan can enable schools to succeed if students are unmotivated. Are cash incentives the answer? If we took a fraction of the money spent from school budgets to buy books or implement different programs, and offered it directly to students as an incentive to focus and study, would this fix our schools?
In the U.S., schools spend about $14,000 per student per year. Some schools spend more, and some spend less. What if we turned 5% of the money spent on each student into incentive money? If i = incentive money and e = expenditure per student, write a formula that would show the relationship between per-student expenditure and per-student incentive.
Pretend that your school wants to implement a cash incentive plan to encourage students to attend an extra one-hour study session after school each day. What is the minimum amount it would take to motivate you to attend for one week? How about for one year? Would it be cost-effective for your school to undertake this kind of plan?