Leren over presteren.

Since the introduction of New Public Management an incentive system for teachers has been used as a tool to improve educational performance. This quantitative international comparative research produces knowledge about the mechanism behind teacher performance- pay. Theoretical explanations, preconditions for an incentive system, are used as a starting point. Country-level performance-pay measures are combined with rich PISA-2009 international school level achievement data. Multi-level analyses show that an incentive system for teachers will only within a specific context contribute to better educational outcomes. Moderating factors show a thoughtful representation of the impact of performance-pay on school results. With regard to mathematics and physics teachers it seems that they are motivated by a performance-related compensation only if they are generally poorly paid compared to other professions. Next to that the autonomy and teacher participation are accountable for a stronger correlation between performance- pay and educational performance. Especially with the language teachers these school characteristics play a major role, they can be seen as preconditions for an effective incentive system for teachers.