Incentives Can Make Or Break Students

New York's Spark program, now in its second year, focuses on fourth- and seventh-graders at 59 city schools. Younger students get $5 for completing each of 10 periodic tests; seventh-graders get $10.

Fryer said he will be the first to call for abandoning cash incentives if they are shown to have no significant impact.

"This is not a silver bullet," he said during a recent visit to the District. "But it's better than sitting around and doing nothing."

Shelontae Carter is not quite as sure. Carter, whose son Christian is an eighth-grader at Shaw at Garnet-Patterson Middle School, said she's willing to try Capital Gains but sees numerous potential pitfalls: resentment from kids whose grades or behavior don't earn them much, parents who claim the money for themselves.

"I don't know if it's going to be good for very long down the road," she said. "I know that when you give rewards, it can go both ways."

Research director Lucy Shackelford and staff writer Nikita Stewart contributed to this report.