A Preliminary Investigation of a Tool to Measure BCBA Supervisory Behaviors

McElroy et al. (2024) tested a new checklist called the OSTI. The checklist lists 25 concrete supervisor moves like "asks questions" or "gives praise."

Two VCS students filled it out while watching BCBA supervisors lead meetings. The goal was to see if the tool could catch real supervisor behavior.

The checklist worked. Students could see and score each supervisor move as it happened.

The authors say the OSTI gives teams a shared language for talking about supervision quality.

Cruz et al. (2023) already showed that when you train supervisors with BST, their therapists get better at DTT. McElroy adds a ruler: the OSTI shows exactly which supervisor moves change.

Ampuero et al. (2025) went one step further. They gave preservice teachers one BST session and hit 90 % fidelity. Their large jump looks faster than McElroy’s small case study, but the studies ask different questions. McElroy asks "what should we measure?" Ampuero asks "how fast can we train?"

Zhu et al. (2020) used remote feedback to boost trainee fidelity. McElroy’s tool could plug into that model: watch a Zoom session, score OSTI items, send the graph.

You now have a free, 25-item list that turns "good supervision" into countable acts. Use it during live or remote meetings to see which behaviors you actually use. Pair the data with brief BST, like Cruz and Ampuero did, to move from guessing to growing.