Performance funding of Danish public schools

Although the percentage of young people completing an upper secondary education in Denmark has improved , it is still considered too low. One of the barriers identified is that not all students gain the qualifications needed to enrol and succeed in upper secondary education when they attend a basic school. In 2016, the Danish government decided to implement a performance funding programme in the basic education schools in order to reduce the number of students with low examination grades. The program states that schools which meet specific targets for improving their examination grades within a 3-year period will be rewarded with a bonus; hence increasing the funding of the school with more than 5% in the following year.

In this project we examine how the programme was perceived by different levels of management in a municipality, how the funding programme affected educational practices at the schools, and how hierarchical levels as well as intentions and actions are coupled. Top management may decide on the overall responsiveness to the government’s incentive programme, but local initiatives and vertical coupling, i.e., coupling between hierarchical levels, and horizontal couplings of intentions and initiatives are important in achieving objectives and implementing strategies.