Investigating Quality in a Statewide Center-Based Infant and Toddler Initiative

• In Event: Access and Quality in Infant-Toddler Care: State-Level Initiatives to Build Stronger Systems

Abstract

Introduction

Despite demand, high-quality center-based early care and education (ECE) is less accessible to families seeking care for their infants and toddlers (Henly & Adams, 2018; Jessen-Howard et al., 2018) and less is known about the quality of center-based programs serving infants and toddlers. Prior work indicates that low to moderate quality of care is common in infant-toddler programs, particularly for children living in poverty (Ruzek et al., 2014), but more work is needed as licensing standards and federal guidelines have shifted to promote high-quality environments for infants and toddlers (National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, 2017; Office of Head Start, 2016).

Our study examines the associations among aspects of quality and infant-toddler outcomes within a statewide ECE program using multiple years of data and a newer measure of observational quality designed for infant-toddler programs.

Our research questions are:
1) Is observed quality associated with infants’ and toddlers’ teacher-reported social-emotional development?
2) Are teachers’ characteristics associated with observed levels of quality in center-based infant and toddler classrooms?
3) Are teachers’ characteristics associated with infants’ and toddlers’ teacher-reported social-emotional development?

Methods

We relied on data from a larger program evaluation that collected teacher survey, child assessment, and classroom observation data. Our sample included all infant-toddler teachers (n = 93) who completed a survey and received a classroom observation over three consecutive program years  and children with complete data on the outcome measures (n = 834-1,016).

Teachers’ reported their demographic characteristics (i.e., years of experience, highest level of education) and completed the Modernity Scale (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985), which captures teachers’ perspectives on interacting with children. Classrooms observations were conducted using the Quality of Care for Infants and Toddlers (QCIT; Atkins-Burnett et al., 2015). Children’s social-emotional skills were reported by the teacher using the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Toddlers (DECA-I/T; Mackrain et al., 2007), which takes a strengths-based approach to assessing within-child protective and resiliency factors.

To answer our research questions, we conducted a series of OLS regression analyses.

Results

Our findings suggest inconsistent relations among observed quality, teacher characteristics, and infants’ and toddlers’ social-emotional development. Regarding RQ1, we find some evidence that QCIT Support for Social-Emotional Development was negatively associated (p < .05) with teacher-reported DECA attachment scores. We also found a positive association between QCIT Support for Language Development scores and teacher-reported DECA attachment (p < .01) and total protective factors scores (p < .05).

For RQ2, our results suggest that teacher education was negatively associated (p < .05) with QCIT Support for Social-Emotional Development scores. Teachers’ progressive views, as reported by the Modernity Scale, were positively associated (p < .05) with QCIT Support for Social-Emotional Development scores.

We did not find any significant associations for RQ3.

Implications

Our study highlights how certain features of the statewide ECE program, such as language-rich environments and child-centered perspectives, might help meet the needs of infants and toddlers as well as the complexity of examining the experiences of infants and toddlers in center-based ECE programs.

Author

• Cara L Kelly, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author