ABSTRACT
One of the greatest challenges school leaders face in dealing with negative employees is understanding that it is up to them to address their problems. Most principals are caring people, which is why they choose education as a profession. However, we also know that if the principal does not confront these people, then no one ever will. It is estimated that 15 percent of teachers are marginal. If we consider that there are over 2 million teach ers in the United States, this means there are over 300,000 mar ginal staff who work with students every day! (Podesta, 1996)
Steven Covey has said, "All organizations are perfectly de signed to get the results they get. " This is true of schools and of every teacher 's classroom. Remember in the first section when you were asked whether you could " . . . predict which teacher will send the most students to the office next year?" There is a simple reason that almost every principal can do so with unerr ing accuracy. If these teachers do not change what they are do ing, and our least effective staff members seldom do, then they are going to get the same results regardless of who the students are the next year.
