This work explains the rise and evolution of an occupational group in its efforts to professionalize, and offers an interpretive analysis of the factors that have historically shaped and influenced public school supervision.
Nine past presidents, the current president, and the executive director of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) contributed a chapter each to this history of ASCD and the fields it has represented since its founding in 1943. The book's editor, William Van Til, provides an introductory overview of the organization's developing role through the years. The individual chapters and their authors are "ASCD and Its Beginnings," by J. Galen Saylor; "ASCD and Group Process," by Alice Miel; "ASCD and Supervision: The Early Years," by Prudence Bostwick; "ASCD and Curriculum Development: The Early Years," by William M. Alexander; "ASCD and Social Forces," by Van Til; "ASCD and Ethnic Groups," by Phil C. Robinson; "ASCD and Research," by Jack Frymier; "ASCD and the Humanist Movement," by Arthur W. Combs; "ASCD and Supervision: The Later Years," by Gerald R. Firth; "ASCD and Curriculum Development: The Later Years," by O. L. Davis, Jr.; and "ASCD and the Years Ahead," by Gordon Cawelti. (PGD)