I have a few takeaways from this pilot program:

1)                 While public schools often get bad press, there are numerous teachers and administrators who are dedicated and impassioned to help students learn.  It was a pleasure to work with people who are enthusiastic about education.

2)                 With incentives, support and encouragement, students who were underperforming can become engaged, impassioned and excited about learning and improving their academic scores.

3)                 Having a group structure helps.  The students bonded and encouraged each other, and as a teacher related, often learned from one another.

The experiment generated enormous interest and some disagreement over how best to motivate students to learn. This is a needed discussion. 

We often look for system-wide answers to the education problem, and forget that students learn from teachers, not systems. Since every student is different, it is unlikely that any one program will meet all students’ needs.  The final report on Learn and Earn is not yet written, and we don’t expect it to be “the” answer, but it is a building block towards answering the question: how do we create desire, motivation and engagement among students so they are eager to learn?

That is a question worth asking, and trying to answer.