| Abstract: | In an attempt to account for the poor test performance of lower-SES children, two conflicting theories were examined: (a) the early damage theory holds that lower-SES children have undergone such early and intensive deprivation that they cannot perform in testing situations; (b) the alienation theory contends that the public schools are middle-class institutions with middle-class intrinsic rewards which do not motivate lower-SES children. When faced with the testing situation the children choose not to perform. In order to test these theories, upper- and lower-SES students (N = 250) were randomly assigned to extrinsic and conventional reward conditions. The multivariate analysis of co-variance techniques indicated a significant (.01 level) improvement in the test performance of lower-SES children when extrinsic (money, food) rewards, as well as conventional rewards, are offered. Extrinsic rewards did not significantly improve the test performance of upper-SES children. |
