Performance-related pay for teachers has changed little in the classroom
Three-quarters of headteachers believe that the new performance payments for teachers have made little or no difference to what teachers do in the classroom. That is one of the main findings to emerge from a large-scale research project undertaken by the school of education at the University of Exeter.
Overall, some 19,183 teachers in the Exeter study — nearly nine in ten of those eligible — applied for the £ 2,000 pay award. The report found that as many as 97% of those who applied received the salary uplift. Among all eligible teachers, the success rate was 86%.
But the impact of these so-called threshold assessments on classroom practice has been minimal , say the Exeter researchers. The main influence of the threshold assessment has been to persuade teachers to keep more detailed records of children’ s work so they will have more written evidence on a future occasion, rather than change the way they work.
Key findings of the Exeter study
Opposition to performance-related pay: Overall, 60% of headteachers indicated that they were against PRP, in principle. Feelings sometimes ran high on this topic.
Inadequate training for headteachers: Heads were vitriolic in their condemnation of the two training days they had received from the private companies charged with carrying it out.
Flood of paperwork: Considerable paperwork was involved in processing applications and some heads were concerned about rewards going to those who were good at handling written documentation.
Time-consuming: Many heads, both primary and secondary, resented the amount of time and bureaucracy involved with the threshold assessment procedure.
The background
Despite reservations over the suitability and efficacy of performance pay in the public sector, the Labour government, like its Conservative predecessor, has enthusiastically backed this concept for state workers.
A shake-up of classroom teachers’ pay in England and Wales introduced for the first time individual performance-related pay during the 2000— 01 school year.
The key features of the scheme are these:
performance thresholds, which teachers have to pass through to receive performance payments
performance assessment of individual teachers by their headteacher
a performance management framework
school performance awards.
The new pay structure comprises a lower and upper pay spine. The lower pay spine consists of a salary scale up to point 9, which most teachers reach after seven to nine years, and through which teachers will, as at present, generally progress automatically at the rate of one point each year.
Beyond this there is a performance threshold and teachers are eligible for a performance assessment by their headteacher. Passing this assessment leads to an immediate pay increase of £ 2,001, and movement through the upper pay spine which has five additional performance points.
Want to know more?
Title: Performance-Related Pay: The views and experience of 1,000 primary and secondary head teachers, by Professor E Wragg, Dr G S Haynes, Dr C M Wragg and Dr R P Chamberlin, University of Exeter School of Education.
Methodology: The teachers’ incentive pay project is a two-year study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust at the University of Exeter. It is an independent investigation into the impact on classrooms and schools of performance-related payments to teachers. The research involves four linked studies.
This part of the project, the first of two national surveys, was based on a mailed questionnaire sent to a national random sample of 2,325 primary and secondary head teachers.
Survey sample: Information was received from 1,225 primary and secondary head teachers in over 150 local education authorities — a response rate of 53%. This paper reports the first 1,000 questionnaires analysed (52% primary 48% secondary).
Availability: Contact Dr Gill Haynes, Teachers’ incentive pay project (TIPP), University of Exeter School of Education, Heavitree Road, Exeter EX1 2LU, tel: 01392 264 826, email tipp@ex.ac.uk.