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6 Measuring Quality in Early Childhood Environments
Pages 145-178

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From page 145...
... Sometimes the family or the quality of the early care and educational setting is an outcome in its own right -- the target of an intervention, for example. In other cases, it is a mediator of the effects of an intervention (e.g., improving family financial resources, introducing a new preschool curriculum, providing professional development)
From page 146...
... evaluate the same setting, can be instructive and can provide good m ­ aterial for discussion. Administrators of formal early care and education ­programs -- such as child care centers, preschools, pre­ kindergartens, and Head Start programs -- can also use classroom observation measures as part of their teacher/caregiver evaluation strategy, as a more objective, sharable set of criteria for observation.
From page 147...
... intervention and evaluation, which uses on-site technical assistance to improve the quality of home-based as well as center-based child care, uses the environmental ratings scales, the Family Day Care Environment Rating Scale, or FDCERS (Harms and Clifford, 1989) , and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised, or ECERS-R (Harms, Clifford, and Cryer, 1998)
From page 148...
... Information from the Head Start Impact Study has also been instrumental in increasing professional development for Head Start teachers, focusing on early mathematics development in young children and how best to foster it. Fourth, classroom observations are useful for research.
From page 149...
... If summative assessment or accountability is a goal, it is preferable that observation measures be administered by someone who is not directly connected to the program being evaluated, although program staff may sometimes perform this role if sufficient safeguards are in place to ensure the reliability and validity of the observations. Most existing measures assess the social environment well and the learning environment at a very general level, but only a few adequately assess practices designed to teach academic or social skills specifically.
From page 150...
... Details on these measures can be found in the literature cited and, for many, in a compendium profiling observational measures for early childhood care and education environments prepared by Child Trends (Child Trends, 2007)
From page 151...
... , emo tional climate, social interactions, support for social skills development, and discipline strategies: A. Degree to which adults are affectionate, supportive, attentive, and respectful toward children. B. Explicit support for social skills (e.g., encouraging children to "use their words," modeling and engaging children in conversations about social problem-solving skills, encouraging the use of learned strategies to solve real social conflicts)
From page 152...
... Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999, 2003)
From page 153...
... The composite scores were the strongest predictor of children's cognitive, language, academic, and social outcomes when considered with demographic, parental attitude, and schooling characteristics in the NICHD SECCYD (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2006)
From page 154...
... and a 1-5 rating scale includes items that assess the physical environment for learning, support for learning, and teaching strategies (e.g., vocabulary building, use of print, storytelling)
From page 155...
... It is important for measures of the environment to be used in conjunction with measures of child outcomes to provide a context for understanding the extent to which children show positive development during the time they are participating in early care and education. This ­ section describes strategies for assessing program quality directly.
From page 156...
... Development of observation measures is just beginning to catch up with the increased political emphasis on academic preparation. Early measures included only a few very general items related to practices designed to promote language and cognitive development.
From page 157...
... Few measures have demonstrated effects on child outcomes, although most assess practices that have been associated with positive child outcomes. Note that although classroom observations may not be as labor-intensive or expensive as assessing individual child outcomes, a fair amount of training is necessary to use all of these measures reliably.
From page 158...
... B. Explicit support for social skills (e.g., encouraging children to "use their words," modeling and engaging children in conver sations about social problem solving skills, encouraging use of learned strategies to solve real social conflicts)
From page 159...
... C. Support for native language development. D. Support for learning English.
From page 160...
... . The APECP scores have been related to child outcomes in both program improvement and observational studies (Lambert, Abbott-Shinn, and Sibley, 2006)
From page 161...
... Classroom Assessment Scoring System The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, and Hamre, 2007) provides an assessment of the overall preschool classroom in terms of the teacher's sensitivity, quality of instruction across all academic areas, and classroom management.
From page 162...
... has 19 items based on the 1987 NAEYC guidelines. It also focuses on the teaching practices the teacher uses with the entire preschool classroom.
From page 163...
... is the most widely used measure of early childhood environments for both evaluation and research purposes. Its goal is to describe the overall quality of the preschool classroom based on the quality of teacher-child interactions and types of activities available in the classroom.
From page 164...
... While most of these studies focused on total scores, a recent pre­kindergarten evaluation study reported that summary scores describing caregiver-child interactions were stronger predictors of child outcomes than summary scores describing the types and quality of activities available in the setting (Howes et al., 2008)
From page 165...
... Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation The Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO; Smith and Dickinson, 2002) focuses on the quality of the language and literacy experiences in a preschool classroom.
From page 166...
... The scale includes a few items on classroom management and climate, but most items focus on language-learning opportunities (e.g., oral language facilitation; book reading and discussion; instruction in and opportunities to write meaningful text; frequent and various approaches to assessment)
From page 167...
... It would not be appropriate for accountability purposes, but it can be instructive in teacher professional development and as a formative assessment tool to provide descriptive information on how children are spending their time. At least some evidence suggests that the EAS measures aspects of the child care environment related to children's outcomes.
From page 168...
... focuses on measuring the quality of the literacy practices in preschool classrooms. It is a battery of observation instruments that assess instructional practices and qualities of the environment in early childhood education classrooms that have been shown to support the development of oral language and emergent literacy skills.
From page 169...
... It is unlikely that all of the scales would be used, but specific selections could be made. Observation Record of the Caregiving Environment The Observation Record of the Caregiving Environment (ORCE; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2000)
From page 170...
... The ORCE composite quality ratings predicted concurrent and later child outcomes in the 10-site NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development in analyses that adjusted for family demographic and parenting characteristics. Children who experienced more responsive and stimulating care according to the ORCE consistently had high language and cognitive scores and tended to have better social skills while in child care (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2006)
From page 171...
... Preschool Program Quality Assessment The Preschool Program Quality Assessment (PQA; High/ Scope, 2003) provides an overall quality rating of the preschool classroom as well as descriptions of dimensions thought to define overall quality.
From page 172...
... One limitation is that some items require an interview with the teacher to complete. Supports for English Language Learners Classroom Assessment The Supports for English Language Learners Classroom Assessment (SELLCA; National Institute for Early Education Research, 2005)
From page 173...
... addressed aspects of the validity of the "Qualistar" rating system, implemented in child care centers and family care sites serving over 1,300 children. Centers showed improvement in measured program quality during the course of the study, but the authors found little evidence that quality ratings predicted child outcomes, and problems were found with the data used for some of the component measures in the system.
From page 174...
... * Assessment Scoring 3rd grade school System (CLASS)
From page 175...
... * Environment Rating Scale-Extension (ECERS-E)
From page 176...
... months Preschool Classroom Preschool Center *
From page 177...
... * English Language Learners Classroom Assessment (SELLCA)


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