"I'll Give you $1000 if you pass that test"

Interesting article in the NY Times today about student bonuses for test performance. It's much too late for any substantive analysis, and apparently more figures are being released later in the day, but the first year of a program where students get paid $1,000 if they pass an AP test seems to not have had the intended results. It'll be interesting to see what happens in years 2 and 3. Meanwhile, I think this was the most interesting quote from the article:

“I’m just dumbfounded that they can regard this as an achievement or as a great improvement or as something worth spending the money on,” said Sol Stern, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, who had expressed cautious support for the Advanced Placement program when it was announced last fall. “I’m surprised that that kind of money, that kind of incentives, doesn’t produce better results. It sort of undercuts the argument that the problem is the question of motivation.”