Recruitment & Retention

Pay for Performance

July 05, 2007 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Barry Schwartz, a psychology professor at Swarthmore College, wrote a fascinating op-ed piece in the New York Times this week about New York City’s plan to pay students up to $500 for doing well in school. Mr. Schwartz argues that offering external perks to students can actually be detrimental in the long run because the expectation of rewards replaces the intrinsic satisfaction students receive from learning.

Fellow Education Week blogger Diane Ravitch also tore into the plan last month in this piece on The Huffington Post.

Growing up, I was always envious of kids whose parents gave them money for getting good grades. Would I have worked any harder in school if my parents had done the same? I was a straight-A student, so probably not. Would I be less interested in learning now, as an adult? I’m glad I didn’t get the chance to find out.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Motivation Matters blog.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Recruitment & Retention Some Positive Signs for the Teacher Pipeline, But It's Not All Good. What 3 Studies Say
Teacher-prep enrollment is stabilizing, but school-level turnover is still high.
8 min read
A classroom at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Pa., sits empty on May 3, 2023. Teachers in the state left their jobs at an accelerating rate, according to an analysis that found attrition in Pennsylvania doubled in the 2022-23 school year. New studies paint a complex picture of the national pipeline.
A classroom at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, Pa., sits empty on May 3, 2023. Teachers in the state left their jobs at an accelerating rate, according to an analysis that found attrition in Pennsylvania doubled in the 2022-23 school year. New studies paint a complex picture of the national pipeline.
Matt Rourke/AP
Recruitment & Retention The First Step to Hiring a Diverse School Staff: Believing It's Possible
District leaders who want to prioritize diverse staffing need to search widely for new job candidates—and give them reasons to stay.
3 min read
Middle school history teachers discuss their lesson plans.
Middle school history teachers discuss their lesson plans.
Allison Shelley/EDUimages
Recruitment & Retention Video How Workplace Culture Can Affect Staffing Shortages
A recruiter and a teacher share possible solutions to ongoing teaching shortages in schools.
2 min read
Recruitment & Retention Letter to the Editor Teacher Housing Is a Critical Need in Native Communities
We can't forget about Indian lands school districts when talking about teacher housing, says this letter to the editor.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week