With schools desperate to escape the draconian penalties of "No Child Left Behind," stories are cropping up across the country of officials offering cold cash and other immediate, tangible rewards for high scores. But count on New York City to do it with style.

According to a New York TImes report, 2,500 students at seven schools were given cell phones this week with 130 pre-paid minutes. If you go to school, do your homework, pass your tests, and don't cause trouble, you get more minutes. Screw up and you don't. Plus, it's set up so your teachers can text you a reminder of upcoming tests or anything else they want to nag you about.

Of course, you're not allowed to use your phone in school. But they can nag you at home.

Is it crass to offer tangible rewards for doing the right thing in school? "This is not about preaching, this is about reality," says Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Actually, "reality"--in the form of scientific, controlled experiments--shows that when you offer kids tangible rewards for learning, they show less motivation after the prize goes away than if you don't try to bribe them. (Read John Perricone's NEA Today essay on that, or Alfie Kohn's book, Punished by Rewards.) So this program is not "evidence-based" as people like to say these days.

But maybe this program will change teen culture in a way the careful experiments couldn't. Whatever works, right? Let's hope it does.