If you’ve ever attended a CLASS Observation Training, you’ve heard the trainer state that the CLASS is a valid tool for measuring the efficacy to teacher-child interactions: that classroom quality, as measured by the CLASS, predicts positive developmental and academic outcomes for children (predictive validity). Specifically, children who attend classrooms with higher CLASS scores demonstrate better social and academic outcomes than their peers in classrooms that were not rated as highly.

I am delighted to introduce Bridget Rey, our Affiliate Trainer for November. As the CLASS Coordinator for Agenda for Children in New Orleans, Bridget has her hands in all things CLASS down in Louisiana! Louisiana’s Early Childhood Education Act mandates the completion of CLASS observations for the purpose of accountabilityduring the fall and spring in every toddler and pre-k classroom in programs that receive public funding. Agenda for Children is the lead agency for overseeing this work in New Orleans which amounts to approximately 1,000 CLASS observations in public schools, private schools, early learning centers and Head Start/Early Head Start.

This morning, we received an email from an observer who had a great question about whether or not it’s OK to code interactions on the playground. Page 11 of the Pre-K Manual states, "Observers, may follow the students and teacher outside to code an activity (e.g., for a walk or a science discovery lesson).  Observers should terminate observation and not assign codes during recess or outdoor play.” Her question was as follows:

The Research Origins of CLASS

Research leading to the current version of the CLASS tool began in 1991 as a part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which examined the influence of early environments and classroom processes on the development of children from a variety of family backgrounds. Study findings clearly indicated that classroom processes impact student outcomes (NICHD EECRN, 2002; Pianta et al., 2005).

With this knowledge, the research team further refined the initial observational tool (the Classroom Observation System: COS) for use in the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) study. This large-scale study examined the quality of publicly funded preschool programs to learn how variations in quality impacted children’s academic and social outcomes.

This month’s spotlight is turned to Gilles Cantin, a professor in the Didactique Department at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Gilles is one of our growing numbers of international Affiliate Trainers. He has been embedding the CLASS into his work as a teacher educator and a researcher for over six years and is an Affiliate Trainer on both Pre-K and K-3 CLASS. When I contacted Gilles to see if he would allow us to profile him he said that he did not like to put himself on stage, but was happy to share information about how he is using the CLASS. 

We recently received an email from an observer who had just completed his K-3 recertification and had some difficulty with Teacher Sensitivity. He stated that he was uncertain how to code the indicator of Addresses Proble­­ms if the students do not appear to have difficulties. He wondered if he needed to be more attentive to minor signs of awareness and responsiveness. If you've ever wondered that yourself or have had a trainee ask you that question, read on to see our response. 

When two colleagues whom I greatly respect for the depth and breadth of their CLASS knowledge contacted me within 24 hours of each other to ask about how the CLASS defined the indicator of transitions under Productivity, I thought it was probably a good topic for a blog post.

In today's vlog, trainer Sarah Hadden demonstrates the best ways to talk through the Structure Process slides in the introductory material for CLASS Observation Training.

At our recent 2016 InterAct CLASS Summit, we asked a group of educators to share their biggest difficulties in implementing professional development within their organizations. Despite the group’s diverse backgrounds, they reported similar challenges:

• Buy-in
• Uneven teacher skill sets
• Planning and logistics
• Time
• Sustainability
• Costs

We're excited to introduce the next post in our four-post series discussing strategies to help with these common challenges.