Relationship Between Classroom Quality and Children With and Without Disabilities’ Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

• In Event: Academic and Behavioral Outcomes Among Children with Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Introduction
Quality early childhood experiences are hypothesized to positively impact young children’s academic and behavioral outcomes (Ishmine et al., 2010; NICHD ECCRN, 2002), but research examining this association has been mixed, with some studies suggesting quality measures are not consistent predictors of children’s outcomes (Burchinal et al., 2021; Mashburn et al., 2008). Additionally, although academic and social development may be particularly important for children with disabilities (e.g., Jamison et al., 2012), little research has examined how classroom quality is associated with outcomes specific to children with differing abilities (Aguiar et al., 2019).

Hypotheses
Our study examines the association between classroom quality, disability status, and children’s outcomes. We hypothesize that higher levels of classroom quality will be positively associated with academic and behavioral outcomes for children with and without disabilities.

Study population
We used the 2014 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) dataset, which includes a nationally representative sample of Head Start programs. The FACES 2014 study included 180 programs, 667 classrooms, and 2,462 children.

Methods
We included observational measures of quality: the Pre-K CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) and the ECERS-R (Harms et al., 2005). Children’s outcomes were assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition (PPVT-4; Dunn et al., 2006), the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4 (EOWPVT-4; Martin & Brownell, 2010), the WJ-III (Woodcock et al., 2001) Letter-Word ID, Applied Problems, and Spelling subtests, teacher-reported Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990), the total problem behaviors scale, and the Pencil Tapping Task (Diamond & Taylor, 1996; Smith-Donald et al., 2007). Teachers reported whether the child had a diagnosed disability in the fall of 2014.

We created an analytic sample (Table 1) requiring each child to have valid data for classroom quality measures in the spring, disability status in the fall, and academic and behavioral outcomes in the spring.

Using OLS regression analyses to examine the association between classroom quality, disability status, and children’s outcomes, we ran two models: one with the main effects of predictors and one with an interaction term to test whether disability status moderated the relationship between classroom quality and child outcomes.

Results
Preliminary results are presented in Table 2. Classroom quality and children’s disability status was not consistently associated with children’s outcomes. We found a statistically significant, negative interaction between CLASS Emotional Support scores and CLASS Classroom Organization scores and Pencil Tap scores, which assesses executive functioning, for children with disabilities. Both interactions suggest that as CLASS scores on these domains increase, children with disabilities’ executive functioning scores decrease.

We also found a positive, statistically significant interaction for CLASS Instructional Support and ECERS-R and the WJ-III Applied Problems subtest for children with disabilities. This suggests that as CLASS Instructional Support scores and ECERS-R scores increase, children with disabilities’ mathematics scores increase.

No statistically significant interactions were found between CLASS or ECERS-R scores and any other academic or behavioral outcomes. We will use the FACES 2009 dataset to test the robustness of our findings, and results will be available by conference.

Authors

• Cara Lynn Kelly, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Melissa Stoffers, University of Delaware

• Ana Whitaker, University of Delaware

• Tia Barnes, University of Delaware

• Teomara (Teya) Rutherford, University of Delaware