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Poor classroom management affects school climate and academic performance.
It's a perfect storm at the secondary level as struggling teachers encounter challenging adolescents.
Practitioners use an administratorled coaching model to identify, evaluate, educate, and support struggling teachers.
Classroom management is a common problem for teachers in all educational settings, I grades K-12. Although not every teacher struggles with the same aspects of classroom management or the same type of student behavior problem, teachers who are highly skilled at classroom management spend more time in engaged instruction, use less exclusionary discipline, and promote positive student development. Still, some individual and classroom behavior problems may occur. Those behavior problems can be decreased when teachers employ effective classroom management practices (Simonsen, Fairbanks, Briesch, Myers, & Sugai, 2008]. Many schools have adapted a three-tiered prevention-based model to minimize academic and social behavior problems, such as the positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS] model that includes systematic strategies at the schoolwide level as well as targeted and intensive supports and interventions (Bohanon et al., 2006]. Many teachers, however, do not receive the training and support they need to manage their classrooms in a way that improves academic engagement and prosocial behavior. Even when models are in place, teachers' perceptions of classroom management practices influence the integrity and effectiveness of implementation (Feuerborn & Chinn, 2012].
Given that some teachers have not acquired effective, positive classroom management strategies and still others do not think that they are valuable, school leaders must ensure that teachers receive ongoing classroom management assessment, support, and training (Reglin, Akpo-Sanni, & Losike-Sedimo, 2012]. It is often a challenge to train teachers who have used negative, punitive, and ineffective strategies for many years to use new, proactive, and preventative strategies. But teachers who notice improvements in classroom culture after employing research-based management techniques are more likely to continue to use the new strategies.
Some teachers need intensive, individualized support and job-embedded professional development to improve their classroom management skills (Slider, Noell, & Williams, 2006]. Those teachers tend to have limited positive student outcomes; write more than the average number of office referrals; and have high percentages of failing, tardy, and absent students in their classrooms. The problems associated with teachers who have limited classroom management abilities or...