School Management Practices, Teachers Effectiveness, and Students’ Academic Performance in Mathematics in Secondary Schools of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed school management practices, teachers’ effectiveness and students’ academic performance in mathematics in Cross River State’s secondary schools. The study was guided by two formulated null hypotheses. The study adopted the factorial research design. Simple and proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were adopted in selecting a sample of 2,145 (893 teachers and 1252 students) from a population of 6,356 teachers, and 39,468 senior secondary school students respectively. “School Management Practices Questionnaire” (SMPQ), “Teachers’ Effectiveness Questionnaire” (TEQ), and Students’ Mathematics Achievement Test (SMAT) were all used as instruments for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established using the Gutman Split-Half (GSH) reliability technique, with coefficients of .919, .889, and .952 obtained for SMPQ, TEQ, and SMAT respectively. The null hypotheses were all tested at .05 alpha level using Pearson correlation matrix and multiple regression. Multiple regression was employed as a multivariate statistical tool due to its ability to examine the combined effect of several independent variables on a dependent variable. Findings revealed that principals’ leadership techniques, conflict management, teachers’ motivation, teachers’ discipline, school supervision, students’ records management, students’ discipline, effective communication, teachers’ effectiveness, and students’ academic performance are significantly related. The eight independent variables jointly predicted teachers’ effectiveness (F= 505.47, p<.05) and students’ academic performance (F=728.16, p<.05) significantly. It was recommended that secondary school principals should perform their routine duties of school management regularly and consistently in order to boost teachers’ effectiveness and improve students’ academic performance in mathematics.