Robert J.

Marzano

Art & Science of Teaching

Classroom Management: Whose Job Is It?
Effective
classroom
management is
the foundation
on which
effective
teaching and
learning thrive.

Robert J. Marzano
is cofounder and
CEO of Marzano
Research Laboratory
in Denver, Colorado.
He is the author of
The Art and Science
of Teaching (ASCD,
2007) and coauthor,
with Tony Frontier and
David Livingston, of
Effective Supervision:
Supporting the Art and
Science of Teaching
(ASCD, 2011).

lassroom management is frequently at

the top of the list of factors that contribute to student achievement (Evertson &
Weinstein, 2006; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg,
1993). But administrators and teachers often see
this issue differently.
For example, in a study that involved more
than 1,000 schools, teachers consistently
identified lack of administrator support for
management issues as among the most pressing
problems in their schools
(Marzano, 2006). For the
most part, teachers believed
that their administrators didnt live up to their
responsibilities. Interestingly, the administrators
in these same buildings
believed that the teachers
who held this perspective were abdicating their
responsibility for management and blaming the
school for their own shortcomings in the classroom.
Research and common sense clearly demonstrate the importance of shared responsibility.
That is, teachers, administrators, and students
all have a role to play in effectively managing
behavior in school.

Teacher Responsibilities
The teacher must provide clear direction to
students and generate an atmosphere in which
all students feel valued and intellectually challenged. To provide academic direction, a teacher
must have clear learning goals coupled with
instruction and assessment that help students
achieve those goals. To provide behavioral
direction, the teacher must have well-designed
rules and procedures (usually established at
the beginning of the school year) that he or she
continually updates and reinforces throughout
the year. In addition, these rules and procedures

need to be the basis for interacting with students regarding behavior: When students follow
the rules and procedure, the teacher thanks
them; when they dont, the teacher reminds
them of behavioral expectations.
To provide an atmosphere thats accepting of
all students, the teacher must engage in daily
activities that communicate to students that the
teacher likes them and is there to help them
learn. Such behaviors include both verbal and
nonverbal messages to students, such as a pat on the
back, a nod, and comments
like Nice job! and Thank
you for doing that.
To provide an atmosphere
that challenges students,
the teacher must behave in
a way that indicates that he
or she expects all students
to accomplish great things
intellectually. Teachers can
do this by asking all students challenging questions
and using student answers
as fodder for delving into and honoring each
students thinking.
Administrator Responsibilities
Although its true that teachers have the lions
share of the responsibility for classroom management, administrators must establish the proper
schoolwide foundation. In fact, one of the main
complaints I hear from teachers in schools that
have problems with classroom management is
that administrators have either not articulated a
schoolwide approach or not implemented their
approach with fidelity. Its the job of administrators to not only clarify rules and procedures for
student behavior in hallways, in parking lots,
and at extracurricular activities, but also monitor
adherence to these rules.
Perhaps their greatest responsibility is
to ensure that guidelines exist for safe and
ASCD /

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respectful behavior toward teachers

and other students. Some teachers
have reported that their schools dont
enforce policies pertaining to aggressive behaviors. For example, a teacher
recently e-mailed me, asking for suggestions about how to stop students from
cursing in his classroom and throwing things at him when his back was
turned. I responded that these behaviors
shouldnt be tolerated in any classroom
and that students should know that
the administration would immediately
intervene if they did occur. The teacher
responded that although his school had
a written policy about such behaviors,
teachers were expected to handle these
issues on their own.
This goes well beyond what schools
should expect of teachers. Indeed, its
the teachers job to be on the lookout

for potentially volatile situations and

deescalate them as quickly as possible.
In the example just cited, the teacher
might have confronted the offending
student in a calm and respectful but
assertive manner, indicating that such
behavior is not tolerated in the school,
and provided the student with an
opportunity to apologize. If the teacher
was unable to identify the offending
student, he might have addressed the
entire class, explaining that the school
policy would be strictly enforced. If the
incident reoccurred, however, it would
be the administrations job to quickly
and automatically address such aggressive and potentially dangerous behavior.
Student Responsibilities
Students must be willing to engage in
designing rules and procedures within

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86

their school and classrooms as well as to

support enforcement of those rules. Of
course, to act on these responsibilities,
students need to be invited, and all too
frequently, no such invitation is offered.
At the school level, student involvement in such issues typically entails
student councils and student representatives participating in decisions about
running the school. At the classroom
level, one powerful strategy Ive seen is
designing a class list of individual rights
and responsibilities along with the
behaviors that support these responsibilities. After developing the list, the
students and teacher sign it as a symbol
of their agreement. The process can also
be employed at the school level.
Take Action!
Classroom management is still a major
weakness in some schools. Those
schools should take immediate action
because effective management is the
foundation on which effective teaching
and learning thrive. The first step is to
engage administrators, teachers, and
students in a concerted effort to define
what constitutes appropriate and
inappropriate behavior and then work
together as a team to establish and
implement fair and equitable policies
that facilitate the desired behavior. EL

References
Evertson, C., & Weinstein, C. S. (Eds.).
(2006). Handbook of classroom management: Research, practice, and contemporary
issues. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Marzano, R. J. (2006). A tool for selecting the
right work in your school. Englewood,
CO: Marzano Research Laboratory.
Wang, M. C., Haertel, G. D., & Walberg,
H. J. (1993). Toward a knowledge base
for school learning. Review of Educational
Research, 63(3), 249294.
Authors note: To contact Marzano or
participate in a study regarding a specific
instructional strategy, visit www.marzano
research.com.

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP / OCTOBER 2011

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