The Development of a Calculator for Objectively Evaluating Supervisory Behaviors in Practice
A ready-made calculator can turn BCBA supervision into clear, reliable numbers you can track.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Valentino et al. (2024) built a simple calculator that scores BCBA supervision behaviors.
They filmed mock supervision sessions and had several raters use the calculator.
The goal was to see if different people would give the same score for the same behavior.
What they found
Raters who used the calculator gave very similar scores to each other.
This means the tool gives reliable, objective numbers instead of gut feelings.
How this fits with other research
Bayley et al. (2023) asked Australian BCBAs how they supervise. Most said they wing it and feel rushed. The calculator turns their loose ideas into concrete scores, so it builds on that survey.
Vance et al. (2022) added cutoffs to the PDC-HS and made novices five times better at picking the right fix. The calculator does the same trick for supervision: clear cutoffs, less guesswork.
Rader et al. (2021) showed that even doctoral BCBAs misread graphs. The calculator avoids that human error by giving fixed scoring rules, just like the graph study urged.
Why it matters
You can build or tweak the same calculator for your team today. Use it during live or remote supervision to give feedback with numbers, not vibes. Reliable scores make it easier to track growth, meet BACB requirements, and show trainees exactly what to improve.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Supervision has been a popular topic of study by behavior analysts for the last decade. This popularity came about after several hallmark articles were published and key events in our profession enhanced clarity regarding how much impact supervision can have on important variables such as the quality of behavior-analytic service delivery, patient outcomes, staff satisfaction, and level of staff burnout. Despite the increase in the volume of supervision literature, few articles have provided concrete recommendations for how to objectively evaluate supervisory behaviors in practice. In this tutorial, we share how we developed a supervision assessment calculator and tested its efficacy to evaluate supervisory behaviors in our practice. We tested the calculator with mock videos, and compared scores from independent raters to determine if the calculator could be used reliability in practice. We make recommendations for behavior analysts who wish to create objective scoring criteria for supervision in their own practice, and ways in which resources like this can be used to enhance the quality of supervision.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2024 · doi:10.1007/s40617-024-00946-w