they don't have any place in a kinder/preschool room IMO. The kids are just too young to really get what the point of it is - all they will see is that they get stars for being good and then have stars taken away if they are bad. However that said, I can see merit in having them in the classroom for older kids. Our school has them in the form of a points chart with 4 levels - blue award is first, them smiley badge, silver bar and then gold medal. With the aim being that they attain a gold medal by the end of the year. It does really help a lot, especially with the younger kids because developmentally, they haven't really developed intrinsic motivation - so it has to be extrinsic and then as they get older they learn to do it for themselves. With the older kids at school they don't get points as often and they do really have to work for them, but for the little kids, they get them for sitting up straight and being a good listener etc. It's a program that works well. Other schools I have been in have used a similar thing but they get end of term rewards like movie afternoons, and a pool party in summer etc. at the boarding school DS1 goes to they also do similar with kids on the highest level getting additional privileges.