Nurturing Early Childhood Teacher Well-being and Teaching Quality Through Essential Organizational Conditions and Leadership

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

This symposium will focus on studies of a set of constructs defining strong early childhood education (ECE) site- or organizational conditions using data from surveys designed to measures those constructs. Prior work in one city validated the measurement of these constructs in preschool settings and identified mindsets, structures, and practices of schools/centers with high and low survey scores. Our proposed session highlights research findings from studies conducted in additional cities and in infant and toddler settings that together deepen our understanding of whether and how these constructs relate to other aspects of quality and are relevant across the ECE continuum. In particular, we will explore how teacher’s perceptions of organizational conditions and leadership are (1) associated with teacher well-being and commitment; (2) vary by teacher, school/center/program, and district/organization characteristics, and (3) are related to classroom and child outcomes in these new locales. Paper #1 uses data from ECE programs across a southern state to explore associations between teachers’ perceptions of their leaders as strong instructional leaders and measures of teacher turnover and well-being. Paper #2, from a state on the northeastern seaboard explores how teacher perceptions of organizational conditions associate and vary according to teachers and district characteristics, teacher stress, and classroom process quality. Paper #3 uses cognitive interview and survey data from a sample of Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership grantees and programs in three states to explore relevance of these constructs for infant-toddler settings and qualitative associations of teacher experiences of these conditions and successes/challenges implementing EHS program standards.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Debra Pacchiano, Start Early

Discussant

• Stacy Ehrlich Loewe, NORC at the University of Chicago

Individual Presentations

• Preschool Teacher Perceptions of School Organizational Conditions in High-Poverty School Districts - Presenting Author: Allison Hope Friedman-Krauss, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Non-Presenting Author: Milagros Nores, National Institute for Early Education Research; Non-Presenting Author: William S Barnett, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

• Adaptation and Psychometric Validation of a Measure of Organizational Conditions for Infant-Toddler Center-Based Settings - Presenting Author: Debra Pacchiano, Start Early; Non-Presenting Author: Isabel Farrar, Start Early; Non-Presenting Author: Joshua Stewart, Marzano Research; Non-Presenting Author: Marc Brodersen, Marzano Research

• Leadership in Early Education: Connections to Teacher Turnover Intentions and Wellbeing in a System-wide Survey - Presenting Author: Anna Markowitz, University of California - Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Author: Daphna Bassok, University of Virginia