Delighted -- or Deflated -- by Dollars

Eboni McCallum, a Shaw at Garnet-Patterson Middle School sixth-grader, reacts to her $34 from the Capital Gains program, which gives rewards for academics and behavior. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)
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Some students said yesterday that it had already raised the level of their academic game.

Avontae Matthews, 12, said she had worked extra hard for her $40. "I participated in all my classes -- even gym. . . . I raised my hand in social studies, and I paid more attention in math," she said.

Although in most cases the missing amounts were small, some students had been looking forward to a bigger payoff for their good work.

"I only got $10. I should have gotten way more," said Tarae Graham, 13, a seventh-grader.

"Yeah, this whole thing is really messed up," agreed Dominique Watson, 13, who received a check for $28.

One special education teacher tried to console students by telling them she was still waiting to be paid by the District for training sessions she attended over the summer.

"So we feel the same way," she said.

Capital Gains was created by Roland G. Fryer Jr., a Harvard University economist and researcher for the school's American Inequality Lab, which studies poverty and race. Fryer, who grew up poor in Daytona Beach, Fla., and dropped out of high school for a time to deal drugs, is searching for ways to close the academic achievement gap between minority and white students.

The middle school years are especially critical, Fryer and other researchers say, because it is the period when achievement often declines. Studies show that many high school dropouts actually finalize their decision to leave during middle school.

At a morning assembly in the Shaw school gym, Fryer joined Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in a kickoff ceremony, presenting a group of students with a giant ceremonial check for $4,538 -- representing the amount students had earned.

"Today is about you," Fryer said to the students, pointing to a row of television cameras. He told them "the whole world was watching" to see whether the program can work.

Half of the $2.7 million for the year-long pilot program comes from the District, and half comes from a grant to Harvard by the Broad Foundation.