Awards Systems: Pros v. Cons

Teachers and parents alike are usually in agreement on child/student consequences.  You will get a time-out if you misbehave.  No more I-pad time for you.  Teachers will give out a detention or even call a student down to the principal’s office if a student misbehaves.

However, teachers and parents are torn on the issue of positive reinforcement and awards systems.  They think, “Should I give a prize if my child does well?”  There are parents and teachers on both sides of the issue.  Some parents will go as far as to give money for each “A” letter grade and others will give a verbal acknowledgement saying, “good job.” 

At Think Tutoring, we see that awards systems work.  We have a prize system called Success Central.  If students put in great effort and receive 100% on an activity, they can get points.  These points can be saved to get a prize.  After a long day’s work at school, student motivation is hard for any teacher to encourage. Usually our students are tired after school, sports, and extracurricular activities.  However, they still put in great effort if they can earn Think Tutoring points.

As parents, we go to work and get a paycheck at the end of the day.  Our students now have the opportunity to go to work (tutoring) and collect their paycheck (points). 

Our reading and math students are improving about 1.5 grade levels!  We say that award systems work.