We had a really bad experience with "behavior" charts one year. My DD had a teacher in 5th grade who's behavior chart was so skewed that once you ended up in the negative it was almost impossible to get out and vice verse. The teachers criteria was arbitrary & leaned towards popular kids. Running a mile by some baseline in PE got you lots of points and they did this once a week, so athletic kids were never on the 'bad' list. Most of these points were for things like keeping your desk clean, turning homework in on time. Mostly EF issues.

Didn't end up working at inspiring any of the kids to work harder because those that were in the 'bad' list were so far in the negative it was pointless to try. Really bothered me but I ended up not doing much about it because I had other issues with this teacher. She was the teacher who I had to constantly remind of my DD's IEP. I also didn't complain because it didn't really bothered my daughter, My DS would have been devastated (he has high anxiety) but my daughter has always let things like this roll off her. A friend of mine did complain and the teacher changed the chart to add reading a book being equivalent for for running a mile in X minutes.

A few years later I heard that a parent actually called the police claiming the teacher was abusing the kids. I don't know the details and I think it was resolved within the school system. This women is still teaching but I did hear after that she did change the 'chart' system.