The Electronic Enhancement of Supervision Project (EESP).

Overview & Synopsis

To address the shortage of special education teachers in rural areas, Indiana University Southeast designed the Electronic Enhancement of Supervision Project (EESP) to integrate technology with supervision training of special education teachers. The goal of EESP is to strengthen the supply and quality of special education teachers through better training of special education cooperating teachers, the critical partners in teacher preparation. Master special educators cooperate with the university to revamp training and support for classroom supervising teachers. Phase 1 prepared three master teachers to supervise/mentor special education cooperating teachers. Phase 1 included training in technologies such as Webcams and discussion listservs. Phase 2 developed a Web site for the program, piloted the technology in schools, and identified six cooperating classroom teachers for Phase 3. Phase 3 will be completed during Spring 2001 as the six cooperating teachers are mentored via listservs by the supervisor-mentors. Phase 4 will develop final conclusions and recommendations. Beneficial aspects of the project focus on the importance of using the expertise of master special education teachers to adapt traditional supervision models to situations specific to special education. Challenges arose surrounding the mismatch of equipment between the university and individual schools and dealing with the technology bureaucracies imbedded in both systems. (Contains 17 references.) (TD)