by David Safier
(TASL)
I find this encouraging. Freshmen in the Sunnyside School District will get free laptops if they keep a 2.5 or better GPA and have a 95% attendance record.
Will this change behavior or just reward the students who are already doing well?
Single-period absences for freshmen at Desert View High School have decreased from 4,270 in the first part of last year to 1,617 this year. At Sunnyside High, they went from 5,515 last year to 1,245 this year.
The number of students failing a class is also decreasing – at Sunnyside those figures are down 40 percent; at Desert View, 24.8 percent.
Those are serious numbers. Teachers are excited about the number of students coming to class regularly and their increased willingness to work. Even parents' attitudes are changing. They're calling the teachers to find out how their children are doing, instead of the teachers calling them.
People really want those laptops.
I have nothing against this kind of "grade/attendance bribery." Parents who can afford it do it all the time. It seems to me it can be even more effective with students who aren't used to having extras.
Students learn more when they have some kind of motivation to learn. The best motivation, of course, is internal. But a little external boost to give them a jump start sounds like a good idea to me.
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