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Adapting and Embedding the Teaching Style Rating Scale: Lessons From a Research-Practice Partnership to Strengthen Universal Pre-K

Fri, April 9, 4:20 to 5:50pm EDT (4:20 to 5:50pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Informed by research documenting associations between classroom quality and children’s learning and development, observational tools like the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta et al., 2008) are now widely used as part of states’ and districts’ early childhood education quality rating and improvement systems. These systems have great potential for ensuring that children’s experiences are high quality, that access to learning opportunities is equitable, and that teacher professional development is targeted strategically. However, existing quality measures are only modestly related to children’s outcomes (Burchinal et al., 2014), and they may not be sensitive to impacts of policies or curricula implemented locally. This highlights a need for tools that capture classroom practices that meaningfully contribute to children’s outcomes, and that can be adapted to local context, aligned to specific program models, and embedded in existing data collection streams at the district level.

This presentation describes how a research-practice partnership adapted and embedded a measure of teacher practice, the Adapted Teaching Style Rating Scale (A-TSRS), within an existing quality monitoring system in a large, diverse urban district offering universal pre-K to all four-year-olds. The A-TSRS has a heavy emphasis on teacher practices linked to children’s self-regulation and social-emotional development, and in this local context, it was expanded to include practices tied to skills in specific content areas. Through descriptive analyses across two years of large-scale data collection and qualitative feedback from observers employed by the district, we ask:
1. What is the feasibility and added value of embedding the A-TSRS within an existing quality monitoring system using the CLASS?
2. What is the reliability and validity of A-TSRS scores?
3. What is the stability of CLASS and A-TSRS scores across two years (2018 and 2019)?

This study included approximately 80 pre-K sites in which CLASS and A-TSRS ratings were completed in 20-minute observation cycles, with 2-4 cycles completed per classroom. About 20% of observations were co-coded with a master coder. Qualitative feedback from observers employed by the district indicated that the A-TSRS generally was feasible and provided information that was useful and complementary to existing data. For example, observers reported that the social-emotional module captured practices that were distinct from CLASS dimensions, and noted that coaches providing on-site support to teachers would find A-TSRS data valuable and actionable. Key challenges included the extra time needed to complete A-TSRS ratings and difficulty using CLASS and A-TSRS simultaneously. Results of descriptive analyses indicated that the A-TSRS was reliable and mapped on to an expected 3-factor solution (Table 1). Further, preliminary analyses indicate that the A-TSRS captured greater variability in teacher practice relative to the CLASS, and associations between the two tools highlighted areas of overlap and distinction (Table 2). Analyses examining stability across two years and the extent to which student composition and other site characteristics predict level and change in A-TSRS scores are underway.

Our results inform further development of the tool and highlight opportunities and challenges of embedding measures within existing quality monitoring systems at scale.

Authors