Self-managing schools and professional community: the professional recognition program in victoria's schools of the future

The context for this article is the Schools of the Future program in Victoria and it focuses on the management of staff in self-managing schools. Guidelines for managing staff in Schools of the Future were provided in 1995 through what was called the Professional Recognition Program (PRP). The core of the PRP is a new career structure for teachers and the PRP guidelines give principals responsibility for a formidable range of staff management and teacher evaluation functions related to implementing that career structure. Principals now decide, in effect, who will gain entry to the teaching profession, who will gain salary increments as a result of compulsory annual appraisals, who will be recognised as having attained advanced professional standards (for 'endorsement' as Leading Teachers), and who among the Leading Teachers and other senior staff will be awarded various levels of annual salary bonuses. These functions give the PRP the potential to have significant long-term effects on the quality of teaching. The introduction of the PRP was accompanied by several claims about the benefits that it will provide to schools. These included claims that the PRP will provide an improved career structure with stronger incentives for professional development, more rigorous methods of teacher evaluation and accountability, and greater recognition for good teaching.