PM Julia Gillard’s announcement today of a bonus pay scheme for teachers is good news, as it signals the Government’s commitment to improving teacher quality, which is a very important contributor to the educational outcomes of Australian children. The ABC reports (Top teachers to get financial rewards):
The Federal Government says next week’s budget will lay the groundwork for rewarding Australia’s best teachers with bonuses of up to $8,100 starting in 2014.
One in ten, or 25,000 primary and secondary teachers, will benefit from the plan which will cost $1.3 billion to 2018.
Teachers will be assessed through student performance data, lesson observations, parental feedback and teacher qualifications.
The compulsory NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests will form part of the assessment.
After a few years of operation, it will be important for the Government to undertake a rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness of the bonus scheme to determine if it’s improving educational outcomes. A major US study last year reported that performance pay for teachers wasn’t effective in improving student outcomes (see my post on Performance pay for teachers).
Hence the Government should view the bonus scheme as a policy experiment and, if it is unsuccessful, consider other options, such as working with the States to improve salary progression for teachers, so experienced senior teachers don’t reach a pay ceiling and leave for betting paying jobs in education bureaucracies or elsewhere.
The Government would also do well to investigate what drives the superior educational outcomes occurring in Finland, as reported in this Time Magazine article (hat tip to Gavin Nicholson for alerting me to it):
Finland’s Educational Success? The Anti–Tiger Mother Approach
For some reason – perhaps due to a greater commitment to public service among the Finnish population, which may be related to lingering socialist sentiments – teaching is a very high status profession in Finland, and it has no difficulty in attracting the best and brightest. Given Australia’s greater acceptance of free market principles, I doubt the attractiveness of teaching as a profession can be increased without boosting salaries.
Related posts:
Queensland Economy Watch 
Pingback: Teacher performance pay | Queensland Economy Watch