Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103070106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON/ EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Well, maybe the incentives aren't tasty enough.
Maybe the path to students' minds really is through their stomachs.
Maybe the promise of more pizza, chili dogs, burgers and doughnuts could help them succeed.
It's possible, said 17-year-old William Fleming High School senior Matt Johnson.
He should know. After being named to his school's honor roll, Johnson received a card that gives him 10 percent to 50 percent discounts at more than a dozen restaurants and stores.
"This thing might make kids work harder," Johnson said. "Most think that working hard takes up all your time and there are no advantages. They may see what kind of advantages" there are to studying.
Johnson especially likes flashing his blue-and-yellow card to get discounted slices at Pizza Hut Express in the Valley View Mall.
The program is called SOAR - support of academic recognition. Students who make the honor roll get a SOAR card.
"We take an interest in young kids today. . . . We think the program is very good," said Pizza Hut spokesman Gary Coles.
School officials say they really don't expect edible incentives to greatly boost the number of Fleming honor roll students. But it gives a "pat on the back" to good students who sometimes are neglected in the city's attempt to serve mediocre students, said librarian and SOAR coordinator Tracy Cain.
Cain helped start the program after getting local businesses to commit to discounts and freebies.
"To the student who does well we say, `Yeah, yeah, but we expect that of you.' This is a way to . . . give them a little extra pat on the back," Cain said. "But it's so new, I don't think a lot of kids are aware of it."
After this year's first nine-week grading period, which ended in October, the first discount cards were given to the 250 students who made the honor roll. The latest grading period ended in January and 193 students scored the required all A's and B's.
ChrisSonia Winfree, 14, a freshman honor student, said the program is "very beneficial. . . . But not a lot of people know about it yet." Once the word gets around, though, Winfree expects to see some friends working a little harder to earn that 15 percent discount at clothing stores.
Cain said another benefit is that "it gives the business community an opportunity to acknowledge student achievement."
On the whole, businesses have complained in recent years that schools aren't sufficiently training their students for the work force. Students need to be better prepared for the high-tech business world, the argument goes.
"Well, this is a way that they can be involved in that," Cain said.
Coles, of Pizza Hut, agrees: "I figure that if they have the discipline and drive now, it can only be a positive force in the future."
Franklin County has had a similar incentive program called PACE - positive attitudes for children's education - for students in both the high school and middle schools, said Edward Decker, elementary education director.
Cain hopes more businesses will participate. And she plans to urge other schools to initiate their own SOAR program.
by CNB