Teachers' views on linking pay to performance

LSE study of the Green Paper pay system for teachers and its effects

Teachers before the 'Threshold'

3. Teachers' views on linking pay to performance

Teachers stand apart from most other groups of public servants, but alongside doctors and nurses, in their opposition to performance pay in principle. Of the two thirds who disagreed with the principle, over half did so strongly. This opposition was already evident in the CEP's earlier study which included head teachers⁶, and is visible too in the more recent opinion surveys carried out for the teachers' unions⁷. Opposition is also strong to one of the key proposals: that performance management should take some account of pupil progress. Teachers are strongly attached to the principle that pay should reflect job demands, there is a strong feeling that all teachers deserve a pay rise, and that whatever the unfairness and inconsistencies of the old system, the proposed link between pay and performance will do little to improve fairness.

No.		Disagree	Neutral	Agree
2	The principle of relating teachers' pay to performance is a good one	63	12	24
4	The principle that individual teachers' pay should take some account of pupil progress is a good one	56	17	27
3	Teachers' pay should reflect the demands of the post and not the performance of individuals	11	11	77
16	The salary levels above the Threshold are too low to make me want to work harder in order to get them	14	39	36
6	The best way to reward good teaching is to raise existing salary levels for all teachers	12	9	79
21	Linking pay with the Performance Review will result in a fairer allocation of pay	70	15	11

Note: in this, and similar tables in this article, the figures show row percentages, omitting 'don't knows'. Thus 63% disagreed with the principle of performance pay (Q2), 12% were 'neutral', and 24% 'agreed', and 1% (not shown) did not know.

The Green Paper stresses the positive arguments for improving rewards and incentives, but much of the teachers' response is likely to be conditioned by what they believe are its true objectives. Here, there is general scepticism about the professed goal of raising pupil achievements, and a strong suspicion that there is a hidden agenda of minimising the cost of uprating teachers' salaries, and of getting more work out of them. This is clear from the belief that financial constraints will impose a 'quota' so that many deserving teachers will not be allowed to pass the Threshold. Signs of teachers feeling the 'under siege' can be seen in the large number who believe they cannot work any harder than they do, and that they usually lose out whenever things change in education.

No.		Disagree	Neutral	Agree
8	The Green Paper pay system is designed to raise pupil achievements	58	22	13
9	The Green Paper pay system is a device to avoid paying more money to all teachers	9	18	68
10	For all that is said about pupil attainments, the Green Paper pay system is simply a device to get more work done.	14	26	54
20	In practice, many excellent teachers will not pass the Threshold because there is certain to be a quota on places available	3	8	82
14	Whenever changes are made in education teachers usually lose out in the end	10	22	66
13	It is very hard for teachers like me to improve our performance because we already work as hard as we possibly can	6	6	88

6. Marsden D.W, and French S. (1998) What a performance: performance related pay in the public services. Centre for Economic Performance Special Report, London School of Economics.

7. 'Teachers' attitudes to the Green Paper', NOP Survey for the NASUWT, January 1999. 'Teachers' Threshold Survey. Tabulations and report prepared by NOP Research Group for the NASUWT', September 1999/430817.

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