Instructional Supervision: The Policy-Practice Rift

Abstract

If school superintendents were polled as to the level of agreement between the behaviors outlined in school division policy manuals and actual behaviours in schools, one might expect them to respond that there was, in fact, a high level of agreement. In fact, in today's site-based managed schools, it seems critically important that the level of agreement be high since schools operated under this management philosophy often have a great deal of autonomy with less day to day contact with superintendents. This article r elates the results of a recent study in which the perceptions of superintendents, principals, and teachers were analyzed and compared in order to determine the actual level of agreement between the practices for instructional supervision outlined in the school division's policy manual and the actual practice in the schools governed by those policies.