The Choice Channel

“Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad has probably never met Soledad Moya, an eighth-grader at Middle School 302 in the South Bronx. But both are big believers in an approach that has people wringing their hands and wagging their fingers: paying students to perform on standardized tests. Moya’s school is a 45-minute subway ride from the Manhattan hotel where Broad took the stage at last month’s Clinton Global Initiative to announce a $6-million grant to help launch EdLabs — an initiative at Harvard University to advance innovations in public schools. EdLab’s first order of business is to determine if Spark — the pilot financial incentive program at Moya’s school and 58 others in New York City — leads to concrete improvements in academic achievement.” (10/15/08)