Well, for one thing, kids don't earn money for doing things that are expected of all students, like helping clean up and sitting nicely on a rug, and stuff like that. They only earn them for going "above and beyond" expectations. My kids didn't earn a "ton" of them, and every time they earned them, we were notified as to what they had done to earn them. They have to do things like offer to help a student who needs help (like, if they are doing math worksheets and a student needs help, rather than asking the teacher, they are sort of encouraged to ask each other, since they work in small groups in clustered desks). When a student helps another, he or she is rewarded. If they are seen doing something spontaneously kind, they are rewarded (like, if they offer to throw away someone else's trash at lunch, or they notice trash didn't get thrown out, and they do so without being told). There are always teachers watching and they pay attention even during recess to what the kids are doing. If they offer to help a teacher or other staff member, they are rewarded. If they show exceptional leadership or kindness, they are rewarded, etc. My son was given a reward once because during a fire drill one day, another student in his class (the autism class), got scared and wanted to run, but he held her hand and told her "it's okay, Ashley, just stay with me so we will be safe." His teacher was so proud of him for noticing her distress and finding a way to diffuse it before the teacher or aides had to step in. Things like that earn students rewards. Honest, genuine acts of kindness and compassion. It also acts as a model for other students who then tend to want to emulate those behaviors. Eventually, the money stops mattering, and the kids just naturally behave better to please their teachers. There really seems to be a culture here where students want to please. Maybe it's the large Asian population (almost a majority of the city population as a whole and a majority at every school) where that is ingrained into their own culture as well. Either way, it works very well here.
I'm not going to pretend there aren't bad kids. There are. But, they aren't given a lot of power, at least at school. The overwhelming majority of students will call them out and it sort of becomes a situation where the students are policing the bad behavior of their peers. I have seen this happen numerous times while volunteering for recess duty. Each middle and high school also has a "security guard" (not an actual security guard in a uniform, but a guy who is dressed in plain clothes but who is essentially the "sheriff" of each school). These guys generally get to know EVERY student by name, and are very visible on campus, and will also sort of police behavior during times like lunch, between classes, pick up and drop off, etc. They don't let things escalate if they see anything going down. At the elementary level, rather than the security guard type person, there are NUMEROUS Instructional Assistants who become sort of like counselors for the kids as well. They kind of float around the school, helping where needed and spend time supervising lunch and recess. The kids really like having these people around and they often spend a lot of time with the students doing fun activities during lunch/recess, to form close bonds with students. It's kind of like having a second mom at school. We joked that our most prominent elementary school IA was our kids' "third grandma."
I don't know what, specifically, makes it work, but it seems like there are many parts that come together to be a very successful program that our district is very proud of. They have spent a lot of time developing and refining it and it has been quite successful.
