The purpose of this article is to provide an assessment and analysis of public sector performance contracting as a performance management tool in Kenya. It aims to demonstrate that performance contracting remains a viable and important tool for improving public sector performance as a key element of the on-going public sector transformation…

The Singapore Ministry of Education's Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS) was instituted in 2005 as a system of professional accountability to enhance the standards and stakes of teacher professionalism in schools. This essay explores how the EPMS, with its underlying paradigm of performance management, functions as a "technology of…

According to Section 2141(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), local education agencies (LEAs) that fail to meet annual measurable objectives and make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for three consecutive years must enter into an agreement with the state education agency…

Philadelphia's new superintendent will lose $8,000 a year if student achievement does not improve. An Ohio superintendent has promised to resign if student proficiency does not climb by 10% (see Roger Barnes' sidebar). Contract specialists predict that administrators will see increasing efforts to tie salaries to results as budgets tighten,…

Roughly 15% of U.S. elementary school principals are working under incentive or performance-pay contracts. Douglas County, Colorado's program, including teachers and administrators, has four components: outstanding performance, skills blocks, group incentive, and district responsibility pay. Bonuses can be major motivators. A sidebar details…

Reviews a study attempting to conceptualize implementation efforts of contracted renewal in Netherlands primary schools. Bestowing contract status on schools is an important instrument for implementing public policy. Becoming a contracted party in a policy process requiring intensified accountability and a time-bound renewal framework induces…

Accountability involves holding individuals and organizations responsible for agreed-upon promises to perform. This relationship between two or more parties includes formal structures that track results to determine if the parties who have entered into an agreement live up to that agreement. From the mid-1980s, states and districts in the U.S.…

The Mississippi Legislature's Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) identified administrative and programmatic weaknesses in the Department of Corrections' associate degree and adult basic education programs administered by Coahoma Junior College for inmates. Related to the associate degree program, Coahoma had…

In September 1999, a pilot program of Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) was introduced in 15 local education authorities (LEAs) in England to provide payments to students aged 16-19 who are from low-income families and who are attending full-time courses in schools and colleges. Participants are entitled to 2 years' support and must be…