I remember when the word “CLASS” struck fear within Head Start teaching staff. When the Office of Head Start announced that CLASS scores would be used as one measure of program quality during program monitoring reviews, it left many teachers anxious and concerned. Imagine being a teacher in a small rural program knowing that your CLASS scores alone could result in the loss of critical services for children, a valuable resource for the community, and jobs.
As a researcher and a former T&TA Manager in Nevada, I wanted to learn more. As part of my doctoral dissertation, I began examining the following areas to see if there were correlations between attitudes toward CLASS and CLASS scores:
- Head Start teachers’ receptivity toward the CLASS
- Existing professional development supports (frequency, types, and effectiveness) as reported by Head Start teachers
- Head Start teachers’ preferences for different types of professional development
- Demographic variables, program length, and years of teaching experience
Over 300 teachers in 3 states participated in the study. To add rigor, I utilized an existing valid and reliable measure, the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS)(Aarons, 2004), and a self-created scale, CLASS Attitude Scale (CAS) that was also deemed valid and reliable. The CAS was divided into two constructs: Attitudes Toward CLASS and Preferred CLASS Interventions.
Findings
I don’t want to bore you with all the statistical analysis—the full report will be available soon—so below are a few of my major findings:
- There is a high level of favorability toward, and comfort with, the CLASS. Despite initial anxiety around the tool, in just a few short years, teachers have embraced CLASS and have come to recognize the value of the tool for professional development.
- There are many statistically significant positive correlations between teachers’ openness toward adopting evidence-based practices (as measured by the EBPAS) and attitudes toward CLASS (as measured by the CAS).
- Demographic variables were not found to be significant in this study.
- There are numerous statistically significant correlations between attitudes described in the EBPAS, CAS and actual CLASS scores.
So, what does this all mean?
This study demonstrates that teachers with high levels of openness toward adopting evidence-based practices also showed more positive attitudes toward CLASS, and when attitudes were higher, CLASS scores were higher. This is not totally surprising, however the results may be useful in informing CLASS coaching and professional development models. Specifically, understanding teachers' receptivity may provide insight into designing individualized methods of professional development delivery.
There were also some really interesting findings related to CLASS-based professional development:
- Teachers most desired timely written feedback, coaching, and modeling of instructional practices.
- Teachers reported little preference between having a coach vs. a supervisor modeling specific strategies, however emerging research suggests that when coaching is provided by the individual responsible for performance evaluations, it changes the dynamics of the coaching.
- Consistent with emerging research, most teachers described tenets of practice-based coaching with individualize coaching, modeling, and feedback as the most useful, and preferred professional development supports to improve their instructional practices
- Although research has shown group trainings to be largely ineffective in changing instructional practices, teachers show an overall favorable attitude toward training.
Based on my research, and others, I am convinced that early childhood instructional improvement efforts will not occur solely through mandates and imposed accountability (Wesley and Buysse, 2010). Change will more likely occur through new and innovative practices that profoundly change our thinking and approaches toward instructional practices (Wesley and Buysse, 2010).
Teachers must be an integral part of the change process, for it is ultimately incumbent upon them to do the hard work required for change practices. These practices must be grounded in reciprocal, strengths-based relationships between teachers and their coaches. For far too long, teachers have been the silent voice, not fully considered in the implementation of change processes. This study confirmed for me our nation’s Head Start teachers are not only willing, they are eager for feedback and coaching to improve their instructional practices. Further, their efforts to improve instruction have resulted in increasing quality as measured by CLASS and likely other measures as well.
The overall favorability of CLASS, despite its use as a Head Start monitoring tool tied to funding, confirmed what I see each day as I am fortunate to work with Head Start teachers: teachers have evolved from a place of anxiety around CLASS to one of recognition of how the tool can support them. It is my hope that policy makers and administrators, listen to teachers and provide them with the supports they need to continue on the path of improved quality that will ultimately lead to more positive outcomes for all children.
