Increasing demands for educational accountability make it important for principals to know how and when to successfully use methods of supervision with teachers to attain the mutual goal of instructional improvement. To determine whether significant differences existed between junior high school teachers' perceptions of principals' supervisory behavior and the teachers' preferences for principals' supervisory methods, Supervisory Behavior Description Questionnaires (form 1) were mailed to 4 teachers employed in each of 20 randomly selected public junior high schools in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Per state, 80 usable responses would have signified a 100 percent return; the actual response rate was 91 percent from Mississippi; Alabama, 25 percent; Arkansas, 30 percent; Kentucky, 20 percent; Louisiana, 40 percent; and Tennessee, 20 percent. An analysis of collected data showed that, in the areas of Curriculum and Staff Development and Evaluation of Instruction, the teachers perceived more directive supervision. Mississippi teachers perceived and preferred less supervision than did teachers in the other five states who perceived more nondirective supervision than they preferred. Racial demographic variables indicated that Caucasians perceived more supervision in Curriculum Development, Instructional Organization, and Staff Development than did non-Caucasians. (16 references) (KM)