Money 'wasted' on teachers' bonus

Teachers had to cross an ability "threshold" to qualify

Millions of pounds of taxpayers' money was wasted on a scheme to assess whether teachers were eligible for a £2,000 performance-related pay rise, research suggests.

A report published by Exeter University says external assessors were hired at a cost of £300 a day to check whether head teachers were adhering to government guidelines on which teachers were eligible, having crossed an ability "threshold".

With such a high level of agreement, why not have a dipstick approach or an appeals procedure?

Professor Ted Wragg

But these assessors only disagreed with 0.4% of cases in a survey of 1,000 primary and secondary school head teachers in England, the report claims.

"Millions of pounds were spent on this, but with such a high level of agreement, why not have a dipstick approach or an appeals procedure?" said Professor Ted Wragg, who led the research.

"Out of the 19,183 cases in our sample, there was only disagreement in 71 cases.

"And then only two were difficult - the other 69 were perfectly amicable," Professor Wragg said.

The assessors were brought into every school.

Opposition

Up to 60% of head teachers were opposed to the idea of performance-related pay, but 39% were in favour of it in principle, though most of these were unhappy about the way it had been put into practice, he said.

John Dunford said the system was a burden to heads

Only one school out of the 1,000 surveyed said the external assessor had actually observed a lesson, as opposed to checking the paperwork submitted by teachers and their heads, the researchers said.

The report said heads were "vitriolic in their condemnation" of the two training days they had received from the private companies charged with carrying it out.

Only one in eight described it as good, the report said.

"Poor, patronising and pedantic", one head was quoted in the report as saying.

"If you are selling double glazing that hardly anyone wants, that has been badly designed, that is incomplete and does not really work, then you are probably on a loser from the start - especially if you only heard about it the day before and still don't understand it yourself!" said another.

Bureaucracy

The survey found that many heads, both primary and secondary, resented the amount of time and bureaucracy involved with the assessment procedure.

It is so refreshing having another inspection by someone of doubtful ability checking up on me yet again

Head teacher

"No one made the days longer so that I could cope with 32 forms. The three who I judged 'not yet met' took a long time to consider, consult and complete.

"I had to get them right and they probably took three hours each at least," one secondary head told the researchers.

A significant minority of heads were irritated by the external assessors.

One said, sarcastically, that he was "over the moon!"

"It is so refreshing having another inspection by someone of doubtful ability checking up on me yet again. Clearly I cannot be trusted and I now understand that."

Raising standards

A spokesman for the Department for Education said the investment in the assessment system was an investment in raising standards.

The process for deciding on performance pay awards was introduced with the maximum of bureaucracy

John Dunford, SHA

"We have set up a rigorous system of assessment - the fact that only a small proportion of heads' judgements have been overturned by external assessors is evidence that the system has worked," the spokesman said.

"The threshold process is designed to have a much wider positive impact on teaching standards right across the system."

Extra workload

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, backed the Wragg report.

"The process for deciding on performance pay awards was introduced with the maximum of bureaucracy and the minimum of concern for the additional workload on heads and teachers," Mr Dunford said.

"As I predicted a year ago, heads had to spend two hours on each application - 100 hours of extra work for those in large schools with 50 teachers applying.

"The high pass rate - 97% - demonstrates that teachers are doing an excellent job, often under very difficult circumstances," he said.