(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Florida tripled the number of Hispanic and African American students passing one or more AP exams with a program that included a financial incentive for schools and teachers.
Meanwhile, C. Kirabo Jackson finds positive results for a similar Texas pilot program in Education Next:
According to my assessment, the incentives produce meaningful increases in participation in the AP program and improvements in other critical education outcomes. Establishment of APIP results in a 30 percent increase in the number of students scoring above 1100 on the SAT or above 24 on the ACT, and an 8 percent increase in the number of students at a high school who enroll in a college or university in Texas. My evidence suggests that these outcomes are likely the result of stronger encouragement from teachers and guidance counselors to enroll in AP courses, better information provided to students, and changes in teacher and peer norms.
Gordon Gekko for Secretary of Education? I can see the confirmation hearing speech in my head:
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed — you mark my words — will not only save public education, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Just kidding, but I will say this: we need to continue experimenting with programs like this. They certainly seem to beat throwing money at schools in the hope that they will improve.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
A couple weeks ago the Washington Post ran a feature on the DC program to pay kids for good grades and behavior. It was surprisingly positive. The reporters obviously had to bend over backward to find something negative to include – they got one sixth-grader to say that he was insulted by being paid to learn. Sure, a sixth grader is upset that he got money. I wonder how long they had to cajole him to say that.
Maybe they paid him.
That’s hysterical.
I think there is much more research to be done here, but these examples seem positive.