The Role of Classmates’ Self-Regulation Skills and Classroom Quality on Pre-Kindergarten Children’s School Readiness

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early-Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

The study has two aims. First, we aim to investigate whether classroom average of self-regulatory skills and classroom organizational quality predict children self-regulatory skills at the end of pre-kindergarten. Further, we explore how classroom average of self-regulatory skills and classroom instructional support influences children’s math and literacy skills at the end of pre-kindergarten. We investigate these associations by gender (Matthews, Ponitz, & Morrison, 2009) within a low-income population of pre-kindergarten children.

Children were drawn from a public pre- kindergarten program in an urban school district. A sample of children from 296 classrooms was assessed as part of a larger study. The current analyses were restricted to the 62 classrooms with at least 50% of children with fall data, and at least five children overall with fall data, because an adequate sample size was required to describe the classroom average of self-regulatory skills in terms of fall assessment data. Most children were African American (70%) or Hispanic (22%). Analyses focused on the fall-to-spring gains of children with both fall and spring data (N = 470).

Research assistants administered a comprehensive battery of instruments to measure children’s school readiness skills in the fall and spring of pre-k. This study focuses on four instruments: The pencil tap test (PTT; Smith-Donald, Raver, Hayes, & Richardson, 2007), the preschool self-regulation assessment (PSRA, Smith-Donald et al., 2007), and the Woodcock Johnson (WJ-III; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) Applied Problems and Letter Word Identification subscales. The PTT measures working memory and inhibitory control skills. The PSRA Attention/Impulsivity scale is an assessor report completed after the child has finished all direct assessments and captures children’s strengths and difficulties in behavioral self-regulation. The WJ Applied Problems subtest assesses basic math skills and WJ Letter Word subset measures children’s knowledge of letter names. Classroom average of self-regulatory skills was computed for PSRA and PTT, including the focal child. Classrooms were observed in the fall and spring with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). Two of the three domains are utilized in this study: Classroom Organization and Instructional Support; fall CLASS scores were used in analyses.

Results indicate that the classroom average of self-regulatory skills and teachers’ observed Classroom Organization did not predict children’s gains in self-regulatory skills over the year. However, for males, classroom average of self-regulatory skills and teachers’ observed Instructional Support predicted children’s gains in both math and literacy skills. Specifically, in classrooms with poor Instructional Support, males in classrooms with high self-regulatory skills made greater gains in math, compared to males in classrooms with lower self-regulatory skills. In contrast, in classrooms with better Instructional Support, classroom average of self-regulatory skills was unrelated to male students’ gains in math. A similar pattern was observed for literacy. For females, the buffering effect of classroom self-regulatory skills was evident with math skills, but not literacy; in fact, teachers’ Instructional Support was not associated with females’ literacy development.

Results promise to inform ways to support classrooms and teachers to amplify benefits for low-income children.

Authors

• Bridget E Hatfield, Oregon State University

• Rebecca Madill, Pennsylvania State University

• Stephanie Margaret Jones, Harvard University

• Tamara Gail Halle, Early Childhood Research Child Trends

• Bridget Kathleen Hamre, University of Virginia

• Catherine Worrell

• Erika Blackburn

• Katina Kearney-Edwards, District of Columbia Public Schools