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Linking Instructional Aspects of Children’s Classroom Learning Experiences to Child Outcomes in PreK

Thu, April 8, 1:10 to 2:40pm EDT (1:10 to 2:40pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Despite a consensus that high-quality early education is important for promoting more equitable child outcomes (Magnuson & Duncan, 2016), it is unclear which aspects of classroom instruction matter most. The literature highlights the potential of some indicators of instructional quality: promotion of children’s vocabulary and higher-order thinking, and exposure to rich content (Burchinal et al., 2016; Neuman, 2006, 2014), but most quality measures do not capture these constructs. The current study aims to describe these under-studied aspects of instructional quality and test whether they predict gains in PreK children’s math and language skills, beyond widely-used measures of classroom process quality. We further test whether these associations vary based on children’s academic skills at PreK entry.
Method. The sample includes 51 classrooms (N = 41 public schools; N = 10 community-based organizations) in Boston, MA. We assessed students’ language (PPVT) and math skills (Woodcock-Johnson Applied Problems and Research-based Early Math Assessment (REMA)) in the fall and spring of PreK. Observational data on classroom quality (CLASS; Pianta et al., 2008) and curriculum fidelity (team-developed) were collected twice in winter, each on two separate days. After each fidelity observation, observers used a 5-point scale to rate 13 global items capturing practices like the promotion of higher-order thinking and content-rich instruction (5 = high quality, 1 = low quality).
Analysis. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the factor structure of the 13 items. Measures were created by averaging items loading onto each factor. Multilevel models examined whether the practices uniquely predicted child gains adjusting for covariates, including process quality. Interactions between quality measures and baseline skills were tested in subsequent models.
Findings. A 2-factor solution best fit the data; internal consistency was high (Cognitive Demand, Content-Rich Instruction; see Table 1). Means for the measures showed that teachers implemented practices at a moderate level of quality, but there was wide variation.

Content-rich instruction was positively associated with gains in math skills but cognitive demand negative predicted gains in math (see Table 2; WJAP outcome). Results of moderation analyses revealed that children entering PreK with stronger math skills benefited from content-rich instruction, in particular. With respect to cognitive demand, children beginning PreK with lower math skills and experiencing lower levels of cognitive demand showed bigger math gains than children with similar fall skills experiencing higher cognitive demand. No significant associations were found for PPVT or REMA.

Conclusions. Findings provide preliminary evidence for the importance of content-rich instruction in predicting gains in children’s math skills, particularly for those entering PreK with stronger math skills. Although instruction with high cognitive demand has been viewed by the ECE field as important, these findings suggest a more critical look at how cognitive demand affects children’s skill development, especially for children with varying academic skills. As localities aim to scale high-quality programs that improve outcomes and reduce early achievement gaps, the field needs new measures like these—diving deep into instructional quality—to capture the breadth of teacher practices that may be critical for promoting child outcomes in PreK.

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