High-stakes accountability using teacher salary incentives in Brazil: An update

Abstract

In Brazil, accountability policies, called políticas de responsabilização, are fundamentally based on the attribution of salary incentives and other bonus payments to teachers and schools. For many authors, the equation between educational accountability and salary bonuses has reduced the discussion of the meaning and consequences of the accountability to an appraisal of the symbolism and injustices of salary incentives. And the other hand, the concept of accountability in Brazil has become associated with a single measure of government control and the one most easily associated with human resource management. If salary incentives are to be continued, as one amongst a number of policy options, their costs need to be calculated and compared to the benefits as measured by appropriate methods of public policy evaluation.