Shaker Heights is the home base for Office Max, an international office supply company. They are educationally oriented in terms of product line, and therefore, were selected over other businesses not related to education. With the support and encouragement of our Action Team, I contacted the president of Office Max. This is particularly important for locally-based companies. Students need encouragement.
Extrinsic rewards serve a useful purpose in schools.
Office Max would receive recognition for their support of scholarship and garner all of the publicity and possible increased sales generated by the plan. Along with the letter, students received a discount coupon for Office Max. We are currently exploring the possibility of expanding this to students who receive all superior effort grades for the semester, therefore recognizing effort in much the same way as we recognize achievement.