About two weeks ago, I wrote about parents who pay for good grades. We had a lively discussion on its merits, although half of you -- including myself -- thought it was a bad idea. We felt that students should want to do well in school without payoffs from mom and dad.

I recently conducted more research on a New York City pilot program, which is doing just that: paying, in this case, low-income children in select schools to do well on assessment tests as part of a larger anti-poverty initiative by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The idea, founded by Harvard Professor Roland Fryer who is overseeing the school component of the program, is to bridge the achievement gap between African American and Caucasian students -- another popular topic here at MT. While no data is yet available as to whether the cash incentives actually work -- the program has been around only two months -- at least anecdotally, some of the city’s least motivated students are better preparing for the tests and actually carefully checking their answers before handing them in, encouraging good study habits and test-taking skills, according to a NYC Department of Education spokeswoman who spoke on background about the program. Here is the skinny:

The program is funded privately and not by taxpayer dollars.

There are 9,000 students -- 4th and 7th graders, largely African American and some Hispanic -- out of 1.1 million public school students participating in the program.  While parents had the option to opt out of the program, at least to the knowledge of the education department worker I spoke to, no one has actually declined the offer of payment for good test scores.

The 4th graders receive $5 for each assessment test they take -- 10 total (5 reading and 5 math). The 7th graders are paid $10 for each of the assessment tests. Additional cash is doled out on a merit pay scale. For example, a 4th grader who scores an 80 on the test, would receive 80 percent of $20 per test. The 7th graders can earn up to $40 per test, not including the initial $10 fee.

Fourth graders can earn up to $250 per year and 7th graders a possible $500.

These tests, BTW, are not state or national standardized tests like No Child Left Behind. They are internal citywide assessment tests that help teachers understand what the academic strengths and weaknesses are of each student.