Rural Teachers ' Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Various Supervisory Practices!

Data on supervisory practices in four rural school districts in central Pennsylvania were gathered from elementary and second-ary teachers using the Survey for Supervisory Practices. The survey includes questions related to the frequency, purpose and perceived value of supervision. One item, "The Supervision I Received Was Helpful to My Improvement as a Teacher " was used as the dependent variable to test sixteen independent variables using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's Mean Separation Procedure. Null hypotheses concerning teachers ' perceptions that supervision was helpful-were rejected for five independent variables. Teachers (N = 549) indicated that they perceive supervision to be helpful when (I) they understand that the purpose of supervision is to assist them in improving their teaching; (2) they and supervisors jointly identify instructional changes; (3) the supervisor is able to get them to focus on their teaching; (4) the supervisor is knowledgeable about the teachers' instructional objective; and (5) they were observed enough by the supervisor. The building principal's role as instructional leader has been emphasized in recent literature on educational ad-ministration. This emphasis is also apparent in the literature on rural education. The Rural Educators of America have listed identification of characteristics of ef-fective leadership in rural schools as a research priorit