Student rewards such as cash and free trips fail to improve GCSE results

Offering rewards such as cash payments or free trips make pupils work harder in class but fail to improve their exam results, according to an intensive £1.6m study involving 10,000 children.

The project involved pupils studying for GCSE exams at 63 schools in deprived areas across England, and was aided by a team of academics that included superstar professors such as Steven Levitt, the co-author of Freakonomics, and John List of the University of Chicago.

Professor Simon Burgess of Bristol University, who helped design the study, which was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “I was very disappointed with these results. I thought the incentives would have had an impact on grades.”

Pupils were randomly offered incentives, including cash payments of up to £160 a term if they met targets for homework, attendance, behaviour and classwork in English, maths and science. Others were offered free outings or trips if they reached the same targets, and a control group was offered no incentives.

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