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Poster #82 - The Intersection of Quality and Quantity in the Preschool Classroom

Thu, March 21, 4:00 to 5:15pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

High-quality preschool education has been put forward as a response to one of the nations most persistent educational problems: the achievement gaps observed in children from minority and low-income families (Ceci & Papierno, 2005; Duncan & Murnane, 2011; Nores & Barnett, 2015). Research has shown that high-quality preschool education programs can produce lasting effects in school success and achievement (Barnett, 2008; Camilli, Vargas, Ryan & Barnett, 2010; Yoshikawa et al., 2013). Well-designed preschool programs have produced gains strong enough to close half the achievement gap between children from low- and high-income families at kindergarten entry and stronger reductions in gaps for minorities (Camilli et al., 2010, Friedman-Kraus, et al., 2016).

As a consequence, defining quality and to what extent preschool programs’ structural characteristics and process indicators influence program effectiveness on children has become a central policy aspect of early childhood systems. Weak associations between structural features of preschool programs and children’s learning have led researchers to focus on classroom process and in-service professional development to improve effectiveness (Pianta & Hamre, 2009; Hamre, et al, 2014). The field has grown to utilize observational measures of quality as part of continuous improvement cycles, quality rating systems, and program evaluation (Martinez-Beck, 2011).

The discussion on quality however has not yet looked at the intersection between quality and quantity. Some research appears to support (Burchinal et al. 2009; OPRE, 2010; Weiland et. al, 2013) thresholds for emotional support and classroom organization above 5 or 5.5 and instructional support above 3 or 3.5 as necessary for a relation between quality and children’s outcomes to be evidenced.

The author’s institution is conducting a multi-year, multi-site study that employs a combination of methods and designs to assess the program components, program quality, and impacts on children’s learning and development on a recently established program on a northeast metropolitan city. During the first phase of data collection,139 classrooms from the program were observed using two different standardized observation measures; the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) and EduSnap (Ritchie, Weiser, Mason, & Holland, 2015). While both observation measures yielded moderately positive associations with child outcomes, they measure different facets of the classroom. The CLASS is a quality measure, used to identify teacher-student interactions. Conversely, the EduSnap is a measure that quantifies the amount of time children spend on different activity settings during a typical school day.

This poster presentation will look at a cross between the CLASS and the EduSnap. As is evident in the graphs below, higher quality classrooms exhibit less transition times, more scaffolded learning and integrate content more often. Differences that were statistically significant are denoted by an asterisk (see figure 2). We propose to further dissect how EduSnap quantity varies through levels of CLASS thresholds. In addition, we will analyze kindergarten classroom data from an inner city within the state of New Jersey to see if the data from these kindergarten classrooms follow the same patterns as the preschool classrooms.

Authors