Improving Quality in the Classroom: Observations and Recommendations from the Head Start Quality Research Centers

In 1995, the Head Start Bureau funded four Quality Research Centers (QRCs) to work in partnership with local Head Start programs to define, assess, and verify the effectiveness of high quality program practices in Head Start programs. The four centers are–

• Georgia State University (Principal Investigator: Martha Abbott-Shim);
• High/Scope Educational Research Foundation (Principal Investigator: Lawrence Schweinhart);
• Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, University of North Carolina (Principal Investigators: Donna Bryant, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg); and
• Education Development Center for Children and Families, with partners at Harvard University, Boston College, and Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Principal Investigator: David Dickinson).

A total of 16 Head Start programs were involved in the QRC effort. Research studies included 1,306 children in 367 classrooms. This article summarizes the findings of all four QRC projects.

What Did We Learn About Program Quality?

QRC researchers assessed program quality by observing classroom environment, curriculum activities, teaching strategies, and staff interactions with children. Classroom quality was defined as including the following elements–

• Learning environments that have a variety of materials that are accessible to children and support diverse learning experiences.
• Daily schedules that balance active and quiet activities, small and large group experiences, and child-directed and teacher-directed experiences.
• Developmentally appropriate curriculum that includes alternative teaching strategies and opportunities for children to guide their own learning.
• Positive interactions initiated by teachers, responsiveness towards children, and consistent behavior management.
• Individualizing efforts that use developmental assessments and purposeful efforts to support language and literacy development in children.
  
  Key findings on classroom quality include–
• Close to one-half of the classrooms score in the "good" range or above.
• Measures of 'learning environment,' 'scheduling,' 'curriculum,' and 'individualizing' improved over three years while 'interacting' remained stable.
• Head Start teachers are stronger in general early childhood education practices than they are in language, literacy, and curriculum practices.

How Is Program Quality Linked to Child Outcomes?

Quality classrooms matter because of the relationship between classroom quality and children's cognitive, language, and social skills development.

Cognitive and Language Development:

The QRCs assessed children by observation, direct assessment, and teacher ratings. Aspects of language development that were measured included: receptive vocabulary, communication skills, phonemic awareness, literacy skills, and letter-word identification. Cognitive measures included: general developmental status, math and reasoning skills, and school readiness.

Research findings related to cognitive and language development included–

• Children show growth over the Head Start year in language, math, and cognitive abilities.
• Child phonemic awareness and literacy skill scores increase over the Head Start year.
• Spanish-speaking children increase more in receptive language over the Head Start year than English-speaking children, but remain below the levels of English-speaking children.
• Children in better quality classrooms score higher at the end of the Head Start year than children in lower quality classrooms.
• More individualized classroom practices are related to better cognitive development and fewer age-related differences.
• Better language and literacy support in the classroom is related to greater literacy knowledge, phonemic awareness, and better math and reasoning skills.
• Closer teacher-child relationships are related to greater phonemic awareness, higher developmental ratings, and better language skills in children.

Social Development

The QRCs measured five aspects of children's social development: positive behavior, prosocial behavior, problem behavior, positive initiative, and children's attitude/perception about Head Start and feelings about their competence. These aspects were measured via direct observations, teacher ratings, parent reports and child self-reports.

Research findings related to social development in quality classrooms include–

• An increase in children's attempts to organize interaction with peers
• A decrease in children's behaviors to accommodate others because they are better able to plan their interactions and have less conflict as a result
• An increase in children's task completion rates
• An improvement in children's social skills

Even after controlling for age, gender, and language, classroom quality still makes a difference for Head Start children as follows–

• Fewer problem behaviors and more positive behaviors among children outside the Head Start classroom
• More pro-social behavior among children
• Less "purely social" play among children that is not goal-oriented

Developmentally appropriate curriculum is
related to–

• More positive initiative and fewer problem behaviors among children
• More positive attitudes about Head Start and self

Close positive teacher-child relationships are related to–

• Fewer problem behaviors
• Positive attitudes and perceptions about Head Start and self

Conclusions

In summary, we have learned the following about classroom quality–

• Head Start classroom quality makes a difference in children's growth and development and readiness for kindergarten.
• Children in higher quality classrooms are doing better at the end of the Head Start year in cognitive, language, and social skills.
• Different aspects of classroom quality, namely, teacher-child relationships, global classroom practices, and specific classroom practices are related to different areas of child development.
• Quality improvement efforts need to consider both classroom practices and teacher-child interactions as well as provide training in implementing a variety of specific teaching practices.
• There is a need for special emphasis on developing language and emergent literacy skills because observational evidence indicates that classroom practices related to developing language and literacy skills are weaker than other early childhood education classroom practices.

We have also learned that quality is affected by a number of attributes, including–

• There is an indirect influence of teachers' formal education on classroom quality through teachers' beliefs.
• Experience in teaching in Head Start programs is not in itself sufficient to guarantee high classroom quality.
• Teachers who have more developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices tend to have higher quality classrooms and higher quality interactions with children.
• Teachers of high quality classrooms tend to hold more positive views of children's parents.
• Classrooms with higher quality adult-child and other interactions tend to have fewer children per class and fewer children per adult.
• Several factors are related to teacher job satisfaction, which in turn influences program quality. These include the perception among teachers that policies are clear, that administrators are supportive, that communication with administrators is possible, and that well-qualified teachers/aides are hired.
• Staff turnover also is related to job satisfaction. Features of the job that are related to lower turnover are feelings that the center is a collegial, innovative environment and that one's supervisor is supportive.