Educators' Perceptions on Performance Pay

Performance-pay (P-P) as an educational policy is currently a hot issue both in research and in public debate. The principal-agent theory application to an education system views teachers as more altruistic than opportunistic, and therefore affected by intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivations. An extensive amount of research has been published on the subject of performance pay models in education, however, less attention was given to the educators perceptions and motivations towards performance pay. The current study aims to explore the question of performance pay from the point of view of the Israeli educators. The results, based on a questionnaire that was constructed especially for this research (Alpha Cronbach= .9) indicate that overall (82%), Israeli educators are in favor of P-P pay. The most favorable P-P design for teachers was perceived to be rewarding individual teachers for the improvement in their students' achievement distribution (average rating of 4.2). In light of these results, the view of educators as intrinsically motivated is called into question. I argue that the educators' social-economic milieu effects their perceptions of P-P. It would seem that Israeli educators view P-P as having a great potential benefit, and indeed, a performance-pay reform is currently underway in Israel.