A Training Program for Supervisors: Anatomy of an Educational Development

In mid-1970 the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) initiated development of a training program for supervising teachers who work with student teachers. After three years of development work, UCSB produced a self-contained Instructional Supervision Training Program (ISTP) which has demonstrated its capability for advancing selected supervisory skills in both college and local school system contexts. A preliminary version of ISTP was tested in nine field sites across the U.S. in 1972-73. All told, sixty different scores were available for the analysis of training effects; fifty-three of the scores are in the desired direction and forty five were statistically significant. The preliminary version was subsequently modified on the basis of field test results and feedback from field test users.