"Dr. Fryer said that after months of working with students, he has learned to listen to their opinions. At one point, he considered creating special shoes along the lines of Nike’s Air Jordans for students who did well. He mentioned the idea to a group of fourth-grade students. “It took about three seconds,” he said, “for one of them to look at me and say, ‘Oh, you mean Air Nerds?’” The idea - to create a limited-release product that you can only get if you have good grades, is okay, but anything that is only available to smart kids will act as a negative signal for those kids.

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