Financial incentives significantly improved classwork effort across English, Maths and Science, with no secure evidence of impact on behaviour, attendance or homework¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr2·q4
Currency · newest study 2014 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q4 i? The financial incentive treatment produced a statistically significant improvement in classwork effort in English, Maths and Science, but no significant effects on the other three effort measures. → Sibieta et al. 2014
Evidence¶
Sibieta et al. 2014¶
Luke Sibieta, Ellen Greaves, Barbara Sianesi. (2014). Increasing Pupil Motivation: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary. Education Endowment Foundation. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED581249
q4 · i? · causal · r2
Secondary-outcome analysis of the cluster RCT measuring whether pupils met thresholds on four effort domains (attendance, behaviour, classwork, homework), monitored by schools and teachers. The report states that "Across the other measures of effort, there was no secure evidence of a positive impact."
"For the financial incentive, there was a positive and statistically significant improvement in classwork in English , Maths and Science (at the 5% level) . For the event incentive, there was also a positive impact although this was not statistically significant."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Event (non-financial) incentives show a small, non-significant positive effect on GCSE Maths attainment and no significant effect on English or Science — related
- Financial incentives for effort tasks show no statistically significant impact on overall GCSE attainment in Maths or English — related
- Paying middle-school students for attendance, behavior, uniforms, and homework yields marginally significant reading gains and non-significant math gains in Washington, DC — related
- Financial incentives showed a positive but non-significant effect on GCSE Maths for pupils with low prior attainment — related
- Input-based incentives produce achievement gains at lower cost than major education reforms of recent decades — related
- Financial incentives for teen parents show no discernible effects on progressing in school — related
- Paying students for performance on standardized tests or for course grades does not increase achievement test scores in urban public schools — related
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