In response to accountability pressures over the past several years, a body of research attempting to identify characteristics of effective schools has developed. Efforts to improve school climate or evaluate teachers solely according to "effective school" characteristics may be misguided. One problem is that school effectiveness may be the result of productive student achievment, not the cause. (A similar misinterpretation of student achievement/self-concept correlates occurred in the 1960s.) Second, educational outcomes should properly be focused on the real school worker, the student. Also, the evaluation process is time-consuming and a compromise at best. This article proposes matching a given situation with one of four supervisory styles: clinical supervision, cooperative professional development, self-directed development, or administrative monitoring. Each style is applicable to one of four categories of teachers: the unfocused worker, the motivated but inexperienced teacher, the "jaded" teacher, and the competent teacher. Situational supervision, based on student achievement levels, takes into account not just the person supervised, but the task assigned. The process is consistent with the situational leadership concept developed by Kenneth Blanchard. Included are four references. (MLH)