Variation in Observed Instructional Support Predicts Academic Outcomes

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Division D Section 1 Poster Session 3

Abstract

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) is an observational instrument used to assess the everyday interactions in educational settings.

The instrument has strong theoretical groundings; however, prior empirical validation of the CLASS has exposed some psychometric weaknesses and recent meta-analyses demonstrate limited ability to predict child outcomes.

In this project, we use observational data of 168 Early Childhood Education centres and 1179 children to test the hypothesis that variability in the quality of interaction between child and educators would predict academic outcomes in grade 3.

The results demonstrated that variation in instructional support as measured by CLASS was a predictor of numeracy, reading, spelling, and grammar and punctuation.

Authors

• Peter Rankin, University of Queensland

• Sally Staton, University of Queensland

• Karen Thorpe, The University of Queensland