Financial Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from Randomized Trials *
Level 2 - randomized trial
Randomized field trials (by design analogy, non-clinical economics research)
OpenAlex W2131123037 · doi:10.1093/qje/qjr045
What was done
A series of school-based randomized field experiments were conducted across more than 200 urban schools in three cities (Dallas, New York, and Chicago) to evaluate the impact of financial incentives on student achievement. Different incentive structures were tested: Dallas students were paid to read books, New York students were rewarded for performance on interim assessments, and Chicago students were paid for classroom grades.
What was found
The estimated overall impact of financial incentives on student achievement was statistically zero across all three cities. The only statistically significant effect detected was among English-speaking students in Dallas. The abstract reports no exact numerical point estimates, standard errors, or p-values.
Why it matters
This study provides large-scale experimental evidence that directly paying urban students for academic inputs or interim performance metrics generally does not translate into detectable overall gains in student achievement.
Limits
The abstract does not disclose the total number of individual student participants, baseline characteristics, or specific numeric effect sizes. The author notes that due to limited statistical power, small effect sizes that might still represent positive economic returns on investment cannot be ruled out.
Cited by
- contradicts By law, American public schools are prohibited from giving cash directly to students as incentives.