This article evaluates the UK government's performance management initiativ
e for teachers in England and Wales as set out in the Green Paper, Teachers
: Meeting the Challenge of Change and subsequent technical amplification do
cuments. This new initiative aims to `modernize' the teaching profession, r
aise standards and provide financial rewards for individuals, teams and who
le-school performance. The article draws upon the first detailed analysis o
f the 4,064 document archive held at the Department for Education & Employm
ent (DfEE) and on the wide body of social science research into performance
-related pay and performance management. It finds that when considered as a
whole package, the initiative represents a relatively sophisticated set of
proposals which reflects a great deal of the most recent thinking in rewar
d management. Critiques, which dismiss the initiative in terms of tradition
al arguments against performance-related pay could be accused of ignoring s
ome important features of the proposed change. Nonetheless, even when consi
dered in its own, wider terms, the initiative is found to be flawed since e
ven this `sophisticated' package neglects some of the important realities o
f schools as complex organizations.