Inside the pre-kindergarten door: Classroom climate and instructional time allocation in Tulsa's pre-K programs

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Abstract

This observational study of 106 pre-K classrooms in Tulsa, Oklahoma provides descriptive data on children's classroom experiences – classroom climate and exposure to academic instruction – and comparisons of Tulsa classrooms with a multi-state sample of pre-K and Head Start classrooms led by comparably educated teachers. We also examined teacher and classroom characteristics that were associated with variation in children's classroom experiences. Compared to other school-based pre-K and Head Start classrooms, teachers in the Tulsa classrooms received significantly higher scores for various dimensions of Instructional Support and Classroom Organization, and devoted significantly more time to academic instruction, notably Literacy and Math Activities. Within the Tulsa sample, children in Head Start classrooms received less exposure to Math instruction, but more exposure to Social Studies activities as compared to their peers in public school pre-K classrooms. Teacher and classroom characteristics were not associated with classroom climate, and only the teachers’ years of experience was associated with greater exposure to Literacy Activities. Major challenges remain in identifying classroom and teacher attributes that contribute to high-quality, educationally rich pre-K environments.

Introduction

The United States is fast approaching a time when school will start at age four for the majority of children. State-funded pre-K programs are now offered in 38 states and the District of Columbia, serving 28% of the nation's 4-year-olds (Barnett, Epstein, Friedman, Boyd, & Hustedt, 2008). This rapid growth in state pre-K programs represents a national experiment focused on finding the best means of launching all young children on a trajectory of school success. Developmental scientists are interested in the impacts of this phenomenon on children's short-term academic and social development, as well as on their growth curves. Policy makers share this primary interest in impacts, but also face practical decisions about how to focus public resources on those design, organizational, and staffing attributes of pre-K programs that will produce high-quality classroom experiences for children and thus hold the most promise of generating strong impacts. This study addresses this practical question in the context of Oklahoma's pre-K program, which has generated strong impacts across racial and income groups in three cohorts of students (Gormley and Gayer, 2005, Gormley et al., 2005, Gormley et al., 2008).

Emerging descriptive data indicate that state-funded pre-K programs are characterized by extensive variation. This variation starts with state pre-K standards. For example, while 26 states require the BA degree and early childhood certification for all pre-K lead teachers, eight states do not require any teachers to have a BA degree and 10 states do not require teachers to have specialized training in early childhood education. The majority of states require a teacher–child ratio of 1:10, but 12 states allow less stringent ratios in some or all of their pre-K classrooms (Barnett et al., 2008).

Oklahoma has among the most stringent state pre-K standards, with its requirement that every classroom's lead teacher have a BA degree and an early childhood teaching certificate, and a maximum class size of 20 and teacher–student ratio of 1:10. These standards apply not only to pre-K programs based in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS), but also to collaborating Head Start and childcare programs. Oklahoma also pays its pre-K teachers the same wages that it pays other public school teachers. The Tulsa Head Start program has chosen to pay its teachers similar wages in order to compete with the TPS schools for top teachers. While 13 programs, like Oklahoma, require that all pre-K teachers be paid on the public school salary scale, many add caveats to this requirement (e.g., it applies only to certified or BA-level teachers) (Barnett et al., 2008).

Available, albeit sparse, evidence suggests that variation in pre-K programs extends beyond state standards to widely disparate experiences for children within these settings (Clifford et al., 2005, Early et al., 2006, Gilliam and Marchesseault, 2005, LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2007). In two recent reports of pre-K practices in 11 states (Early et al., 2006, Howes et al., 2008), average classroom quality assessed with the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) hovered just below the “good” level, with 12% of classrooms receiving quality scores in the minimal range and 8% receiving scores in the good to excellent range (Early et al., 2006). Moreover, while the quality of emotional interactions between teachers and children in these classrooms fell within the middle-to-high range on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008), the vast majority of classrooms fell within the low-quality range on the quality of instructional interactions (Early et al., 2006, Howes et al., 2008). Children spent substantially less than 10% of their classroom time on specific pre-literacy and pre-math activities.

A representative sample of Head Start classrooms has also been assessed with the ECERS-R (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006). Average classroom quality was notably higher than that reported in the 11-state pre-K sample; the vast majority of classrooms fell within the “good” range. Nevertheless, the proportion of time spent on early literacy activities was minimal, as with the pre-K classrooms. Importantly, these data were collected in 2003, prior to the Congressional mandate to increase the share of more highly educated teachers in Head Start classrooms. In the current study, we examine whether Oklahoma's pre-K program, with its relatively stringent state requirements, is characterized by higher quality classroom environments and experiences as compared to larger and more typical pre-K and Head Start samples.

A second purpose of this study is to examine the features of the Tulsa pre-K programs that are associated with higher quality environments and experiences within Tulsa classrooms. Evidence is only now emerging from efforts to look inside the “black box” of pre-kindergarten classrooms to identify the specific practices and characteristics of programs that contribute to the promising results that the Oklahoma program and others have been reporting (see Barnett et al., 2008, Gilliam and Zigler, 2001, Gilliam and Zigler, 2004, Henry et al., 2001, Magnuson et al., 2004, Pianta et al., 2005, Wong et al., 2008). Pianta and colleagues have reported positive associations between the emotional and instructional climate of the classroom and children's early learning and social-emotional development (Hamre and Pianta, 2005, Mashburn et al., 2008). More generally, the pre-K literature has directed attention to the importance of the teacher's capacity to combine focused time spent on explicit subject-matter learning, clear and efficient time management and classroom organization, and a classroom climate characterized by warm, contingent interactions (Bowman et al., 2000, Clements et al., 2003, Connor et al., 2006, Howes and Richie, 2002, Snow et al., 1998, Stipek and Byler, 2003). Howes et al. (2008), for example, found that children's exposure to pre-literacy activities, the overall instructional climate of the classroom, and teacher-reported close relationships with the children were associated with higher scores on tests of early literacy at the conclusion of the pre-K year.

These findings are similar to those emerging from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) data showing that, while higher quality classrooms are led by teachers with higher levels of education (especially a BA or AA degree) and a teaching certificate, these characteristics affect classroom quality through their positive influence on teacher attitudes and knowledge (Resnick & Zill, 2003). In effect, this relatively new line of research is confirming long-standing evidence on the significant role played by process dimensions of classroom quality in supporting early learning.

These findings from relatively recent studies of pre-K and Head Start programs are also consistent with a longer standing literature examining predictors of high-quality instruction and student performance in elementary school. The elementary school research is restricted to samples of teachers with BA degrees, given consistent state standards on teacher qualifications and, as such, is highly relevant to the pre-K context in Oklahoma (where every lead teacher must have a BA degree). In this literature, neither higher levels of education in the form of master's degrees nor certification per se are associated with stronger student performance, in part because these variables do not appear to distinguish good teachers from bad (Aaronson et al., 2003, Boyd et al., 2007, Clotfelter et al., 2006, Ehrenberg and Brewer, 1997, Hill, 2007, Kane et al., 2006). Positive associations with elementary student performance are, however, found for teacher experience and ability. More experienced teachers provide higher quality classroom instruction and, in turn, produce stronger student achievement in both math and reading (Clotfelter et al., 2006, Goldhaber, 2007, Jacob, 2007, Kane et al., 2006, Rivkin et al., 2005, Rockoff, 2004). This link between teacher experience and positive classroom experiences has also been found in the pre-K literature (LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2007, Pianta et al., 2005). Some of this experience effect appears to be associated with the relatively poorer skills of novice teachers who are in their first or second year of teaching.

Teacher ability has been assessed using the selectivity of the college a teacher attended (Summers & Wolfe, 1977) and performance on various tests ranging from certification and college entrance exams to tests of verbal ability (Clotfelter et al., 2006, Ehrenberg and Brewer, 1997, Ferguson, 1991, Hanushek, 1971). While these proxies for teachers’ cognitive ability are more strongly linked to student performance than are degrees and credentials, the associations remain quite weak (Hanushek & Rivkin, 2004).

An additional line of research aimed at deciphering effective early educational and elementary practice has focused on curricula. Despite repeated attempts to distinguish curricula that most strongly support early learning, results have been inconsistent and often disappointing (Cole et al., 2005, Ehri et al., 2001, PCERC, 2008, Ryder et al., 2006, Schweinhart and Weikart, 1997, Stebbins et al., 1977). The salient, cautionary message from this literature is that it is not about the curriculum per se, but rather about how effectively the teacher deploys the curriculum in the context of student–teacher instructional interactions and the overall emotional climate of the classroom (Phillips and Stipek, 1993, Ryder et al., 2006). In other words, it is not about the script, it is about the actors.

Taken together, the relatively new evidence on early childhood classrooms and the longer standing literature on elementary education have directed attention to a somewhat new mix of classroom features that warrant examination in future research: (1) teacher certification, (2) teacher's years of higher education, (3) teacher's years of classroom experience, (4) indicators of teacher cognitive ability, and (5) curricula used in the classroom. These features, in turn, appear to affect children's learning through their associations with the emotional and instructional climate in the classroom, and the amount of classroom time that is devoted to specific instructional activities.

The current study offers a look inside the classroom door of pre-K programs in the relatively stringent policy context of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We examined whether this policy context is associated with relatively positive classroom climates and more time on academic instruction for young children both within Tulsa and in comparison to programs in other states. Moreover, we were able to examine the role of auspice – TPS vs. Head Start – as it is associated with children's classroom experiences. This has become an increasingly pressing question in light of proposals that range from better aligning Head Start practices with those of state pre-K programs to diverting funding for 4-year-old programs from Head Start to state pre-K (Currie, 2001, Haskins and Sawhill, 2003, Ripple et al., 1999).

We address three questions: (1) What are children's experiences with regard to classroom climate and exposure to academic instruction in Tulsa's pre-K classrooms? (2) Are the Tulsa pre-K classrooms characterized by more positive classroom climates and greater instructional time for 4-year-old children as compared to multi-state assessments of pre-K and Head Start classrooms? and (3) are program auspice (Head Start or TPS), classroom characteristics, and teacher characteristics and practices associated with variation in classroom processes within Tulsa? We examine virtually all the variables identified above, namely: (1) whether the teacher majored in early education (rather than certification in early childhood education, which all teachers in Tulsa are required to hold), (2) whether the teacher has a master's degree, (3) the teacher's years of classroom experience, (4) the teacher's undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA) (a proxy for ability level), and (5) curricula used in the classroom. We examine their association with the teacher's ability to establish a positive classroom climate and the time s/he spends on instructional activities. We also examine whether there are differences in classroom climate or instructional time for half- and full-day classrooms.

Section snippets

Method

The current project is designed to examine classroom processes that may offer insights into the successful outcomes of the Tulsa pre-K program. Classroom climate and exposure to academic instruction are the processes of interest given evidence of their association with young children's learning. We used observational measures that have been employed in prior research to permit comparisons between Tulsa classrooms and other samples of pre-K and Head Start classrooms. We also gathered data from

Data analysis

Both descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. For the within-Tulsa descriptive data analyses, we report scores for the separate CLASS dimensions, including Student Engagement, as well as for the three composites: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support. For the comparisons with the multi-state data, we utilize a subset of the separate dimensions that were commonly collected in Tulsa and in the 11 participating states. Comparisons could not be made with

Discussion

States have high aspirations for the investments they are making in pre-K education. The expectation is that high-quality, educationally focused programs for 4-year-old will reap benefits in improved school performance for all participating children. The pre-K program in Oklahoma, in particular, has received substantial attention from researchers and decision-makers alike. Not only is this program unusual in its universality, near exclusive reliance on school-based programs, relatively high

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