In The New Dare to Discipline, his book on child-rearing, James Dobson (yes, that James Dobson—read the book before you judge it by its author) discusses how children respond to positive reinforcement and incentives. Paying them to do extra chores teaches them the value of work and the virtues of spending wisely. It is also important, he contends, to give positive reinforcement sooner rather than later. There is little benefit in telling a small child that if he cleans up his room today you will take him to the pool next summer. Reward promptly.

The D.C. school system seems to be taking that lesson to heart with its new Capital Gains program offering financial incentives for academic performance. And it seems to be working:

Students have been buzzing about the pilot program, called Capital Gains, since they learned in late August that their school had been selected. The school now includes students from Shaw, which closed in June.

Some have already identified the weaknesses they’ll need to correct in order to cash in. Jai Carson, 13, said he’ll need to focus more on his eighth-grade history class. Dominique Watson, also 13 and an eighth-grader, said she’ll have to cut down on the classroom banter.

“Personally, for me, I like to talk a lot,“ she said. “So I’ll have to kind of tone that down.“

Capital Gains is the creation of Roland G. Fryer Jr., a Harvard University economist and principal investigator for the university’s American Inequality Lab, which studies issues of poverty and race. Fryer is searching for ways to close the academic achievement gap that separates white and minority children. . . .

Telling kids that studying now might help them earn a promotion three decades from now seems rather abstract. Telling them they can earn $100 in a couple of weeks makes the moral immediate.