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.
You may have wondered, “What is the research behind the CLASS? How can they state so confidently that the CLASS works?” If so, you are in luck! Teachstone is excited to release our paper titled, “Effective Teacher-Child Interactions: A Summary of the Research on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K through Third Grade.” This paper reviews over 150 peer reviewed research studies that examined the use of CLASS in pre-K and third-grade classrooms in the U.S. In addition to confirming that the CLASS has predictive validity, they also show that targeted CLASS-based professional development helps teachers improve their interactions with children, leading to improved child outcomes. It’s pretty neat stuff!
To read this paper and learn more, click here. Happy reading. You can also watch our webinar "Research for Real People" that discusses the paper. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at sarah.hadden@teachstone.com.
If you are wondering about the other age levels of the CLASS, rest assured that we were working on collecting and analyzing studies on these age levels as well.
