From the article it sound like a pretty solid study, other than the phrasing: "Grades are subjective. The more objective measure would come at the end of the y

From the article it sound like a pretty solid study, other than the phrasing: "Grades are subjective. The more objective measure would come at the end of the year, when the students took their standardized tests" Though from the sounds of results that's just poor wording more than an actual claim that standardized testing is a Good Thing. I think the most important results can be summed up as: rewards work best when coupled with things that students can control (in context, not as vacuous as it sounds) and rewards should follow the actions fairly quickly.