Your little genius brings home a stellar report card.

What will be his or her reward? While some parents say that a simple “job well done” would suffice for their budding scholar, others have no problem purchasing a hi-tech gadget, celebrating with a special dinner.

And for some, doling out dollars is totally acceptable.

Now school districts in cities such as Atlanta and Baltimore have implemented programs where students receive everything from iPods, flat screen Tvs to cold, hard cash for making the best grades or scoring high on standardized tests. It’s controversial, but supporters say that it’s no different than providing a hard-working employee with a cash bonus for a job well done.USA Today reported last year that a Baltimore high school promised students up to $110 for improved state graduation exam scores. Two schools in Atlanta implemented a 15-week “Learn and Earn” program. Students were earning an $8 hourly wage for doing well in school. The federal minimum wage is currently $6.55. Currently, no such programs exist in Michigan, but local educators and parents do think, under certainCircumstances, gifts or a money-reward system for academic achievement could work for some school districts.

Tom White, executive director of Lansingbased Michigan School Business Officials, a nonprofit corporation with a focus on improving the leadership and management in school business and operations, says he can see the benefits of such a program.

“On one hand, you would like for kids to be instilled with an innate love of learning,” White says. “But on the other hand, if it’s not there, what do you do? So being a pragmatist, from my perspective, it is worth looking into and experimenting with.” While it might be worth looking into, funding for such a program seems impractical as the country reels from an economic recession. So, White adds, such a program would only be feasible with private donations.

Liz Margolis, director of communications for Ann Arbor Public Schools, says she has heard of Michigan school districts using incentives like pizza parties and drawings for prizes on school-enrollment count days, on which state funding is determined, but it’s not a practice used in Ann Arbor.

“While we want our students to achieve and do the best that they can, we would never offer a monetary incentive for that,” she says.

“There are so many districts on the edge of going under that this would be the furthest thing from their minds to address.” In states like Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Washington, USA Today reported, students were paid $100 for each passing grade on “advanced placement, college-prep exams,” funded by an Exxon/ Mobil program.

White stresses that such programs wouldn’t work for every school district.

“The experiment is focusing on at-risk kids that don’t necessarily come from an environment that values learning,” says White.

“So this is for a minimum number of schools, districts and students. You put your resources where they are needed. We wouldn’t be doing this in Birmingham or Bloomfield Hills.” But others are more cautious about jumping on board with such a program, even on a limited basis.

Berkley School District Superintendent Mike Simeck would only say that schools are always looking at programs to help students get better grades.

“We are very interested to see what other districts are doing and would like to see the result of these motivational techniques.” Harvard economist Roland Fryer is one of the country’s biggest proponents of such incentive programs. Fryer was the architect behind a two-year experiment in New York City where students were paid each month for excelling on skills tests. Fryer has said that the program was a way to help disadvantaged kids stay in school and learn that hard work can pay off.

His current project, which has already earned the attention of such national media outlets as Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, is generating plenty of controversy.

Funded through private donations under the umbrella of Fryer’s Education Innovation Laboratory (edLabs) at Harvard University, the three-year research and development institute is putting cash in the hands of disadvantaged students who stay in school and strive to achieve.

With private donations backing the program, students are currently receiving $50 every five weeks per “A” received in math, science, social studies and physical education.

Students are also paid $35 for every “B” and $20 for every “C.” The experimental program is also putting cash in the pockets of Chicago-area students, but until the program is deemed a success, no plans will be made for expansion into other at-risk communities.

Brian Ambrozy, a Warren father of two, agrees with Fryer’s plan from a motivational standpoint, but still sees problems with the
System.

“I’d be a hypocrite if I said that system didn’t have merit, because I have done that,” he says. “I have bribed my kids to get on the honor roll. And it’s worked, because I think bribing can help motivation.” But still, Ambrozy says, it’s a decision he thinks that should be left up to the parents, not the school district.

“Sure, (bribing) can boost the bottom line,” he says, “but is it the kids really working hard and taking ownership of their education, or are they just working for the cash? I can see that fostering a huge environment of cheating and a poor work ethic.

“Programs like this are saying that all we have to do is pay kids to solve these problems.

And that doesn’t work for the big picture.” Dr. Karen Selby, chair of the education department at the University of Detroit Mercy and a respected researcher in her field, agrees with Ambrozy’s take on the situation.

A parent who takes the time to talk with his or her child and takes an active role in that child’s education will know what it takes to motivate the child to succeed. It’s fine if that “something” is money, so long as the cash is part of an ongoing discussion between parent and child, she says.

“All the research shows that when you have a child deeply engaged in doing something with their parents, the child is always a big winner,” Selby says. “Your kids are going to go in a different direction than you, but you have to listen to them about where they are going and what their plans are. That is always going to have a larger impact than financial rewards.

And any parent can do that.” But Selby is quick to point out that dangerous precedents are set when the financial motivation is being handed out at school.

“There are no blanket fixes for education.

If there were, we would have perfection from every student, every day, every year,” Selby says.Carrie O’Connor, a Wyandotte special education teacher, also sees a flaw in such an academic incentive program. O’Connor, who works with autistic children who range in age from 13 to 18 and is the mother of a son with learning issues, says she sees these kids on the losing end of such programs.

“What about those students who struggle?” says O’Connor of Allen Park. “What if their best achievement is a ‘C?’ Where are the accommodations for those types of students?” O’Connor does see some positives about such programs. She believes it can help highperforming students stay motivated and could encourage disadvantaged students. But in O’Connor’s home, money for grades is not an option.

“I don’t do it (financial rewards for grades).

To me, that is their job in life – to be a student. To me, if they are working up to the best of their ability, they are getting the verbal praise, and I want that to be enough for them,” she says. “If my son’s grades are slipping and he gets a ‘D’ in math and I know he can do a ‘C,’ I may reward them by taking them out to dinner, but I never hand over cash.” Tammy Johnson is another parent that doesn’t reward academic success with money.

Johnson, of Chesterfield Township, is the parent of two teens. She believes in rewarding her son Tyler, 15, a student at L’Anse Creuse High School-North, in other ways.

“He messed up on his last report card, and I had to pull him out of wrestling,” she says, adding that a 3.2 grade point average is the Johnson house minimum in order to participate in extracurricular activities like his starting spot on the football team.

“Tyler’s job is to go to school. His bonus for getting good grades is to play the sports he loves. Not cash.”