The Relationship Between Supervisory Treatments, Certain Contextual Variables, and Successful Outcomes in Ineffective Teachers

Abstract

This study was undertaken in response to one of the most important but least understood problems facing public school administrators, the supervision of ineffective teachers. The purpose of the study was to discover what principal actions and what contextual variables were related to the responsiveness of ineffective teachers to remedial efforts.

The nonrandom sample was composed of principals' written descriptions of 102 ineffective teachers from levels K-12 in 26 school districts throughout the state of Washington. The principals' open-ended responses were coded into 16 variables that were subsequently analyzed using discriminant analysis procedures. Findings showed that discipline and management was a problem in 88.2% of the cases, and instructional skill and preparation problems appeared in 71.6% of the cases. The discriminant analysis produced two significant functions. The first function was associated with a Wilks' lamda of .508, x2 (18) = 64.28, p < .000, and the second function was associated with a Wilks' lamda of .754, x2 (8) = 26.82, p < .000. Proportion of variance accounted for was 49% with 63% of the cases correctly classified using nine predictors and three groups. A blockwise discriminant analysis produced an increase in the proportion of variance accounted for for 11% to 49% when the block of variables that principals can alter was incremented by the block of variables that principals can alter. Selected conclusions drawn from the study's findings included: (1) Principals' supervisory actions do make a critical impact on what happens to those teachers who are ineffective. (2) Ineffective teachers exhibit multiple deficiencies with discipline and management problems occurring in nearly all cases. (3) When misconduct is involved as a deficiency, principals will not tolerate it, and we could anticipate successful outcomes. (4) Principals experience the least success in supervising cases of ineffectiveness which involve a problem in relationships with students, staff, and patrons. (5) Principals' use of disciplinary action along with resignation inducement leads to release of teachers who have multiple deficiencies; while supervision which attempts to facilitate knowledge and skill acquisition and is not disciplinary leads to improvement in teachers with less experience.