As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding the... more As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding their perceptions of the challenges experienced and supports received as they returned to school to earn bachelor's degrees. All participants were working in the early care and education field. Interviewees perceived the cohort structure of their B.A. program as important to their academic success; this positive assessment increased over time and continued after graduation. A majority reported that program services such as financial assistance and the scheduling and location of classes were critically important throughout their participation in the degree programs. In contrast, academic and technological challenges reportedly decreased over time, and thus students' need for support such as tutoring, counseling services, and technology assistance decreased. Many students whose primary language was not English reported relying on English-language assistance throughout their school experience even when they perceived English academic work to be increasingly less challenging. These findings suggest that those who design and implement programs to assist degree attainment should invest in academic supports at the beginning of the program while other supports, including financial assistance, the schedule and location of classes, and the cohort itself, are critical throughout students' educational experience.
This qualitative study sought to understand whether there were difference in how early childhood ... more This qualitative study sought to understand whether there were difference in how early childhood education (ECE) teachers who stayed in or left their jobs interpreted their job demands and resources. It also sought to understand factors that shaped teachers’ turnover and retention decisions. Twenty-six teachers who worked in subsidized ECE programs that blended multiple public funding sources were interviewed, 14 of whom stayed in their jobs and 12 of whom left their jobs. We found teachers’ reasons for leaving or staying were complex and took into consideration workplace and family factors. Teachers who stayed tended to share the same job frustrations as those who left, namely a misalignment between job demands and resources, but those who stayed were more willing to engage creatively in solving workplace problems. Teachers who stayed placed greater value on professional development opportunities than teachers who left, and these key job rewards factored into retention decisions. Teachers who left often felt that lacking key job resources undermined their sense of competence at being an effective teacher and viewed the psychosocial workplace climate less favorably than teachers who stayed. For many teachers, the value they placed on different job rewards was influenced by family factors.
This study examines the Denver Preschool Program (DPP), a voter-approved sales tax initiative tha... more This study examines the Denver Preschool Program (DPP), a voter-approved sales tax initiative that provides a tuition credit for four-year old children to attend preschool. Using propensity weighting and doubly robust modeling on ten cohorts of kindergartners from 2009-2010 through 2018-2019, we found DPP participants were more likely to read at grade level and less likely to be retained or to be chronically absent than their similarly-situated non-DPP peers. The absolute magnitude of the effect sizes for reading achievement and chronic absenteeism ranged from 0.21 to 0.28, and were considered substantively important. The relationships were stronger for DPP participants who had enrolled in a school-based, pre-kindergarten program than DPP participants who had enrolled in a community-based preschool, and the effect sizes were almost twice as large for pre-kindergarten participants than for community-based participants on reading achievement. Policy implications are discussed.
Research Findings: This study examined the job demands and job resources of a sample of 273 early... more Research Findings: This study examined the job demands and job resources of a sample of 273 early childhood teachers in Colorado. The study explored the relationships among their job demands and resources, occupational burn-out, and turnover intentions using a two-level mediated model. Study find-ings suggest that teachers’ emotional exhaustion and depersonalization from the work is a function of lack of job control, lack of collegial relation-ships within the program, and children’s behaviors that they perceived to be challenging. However, teachers also reported being more fulfilled with their work when they worked in programs in which there was a shared vision and that allowed for greater job control. Additionally, teachers who earned lower wages, held a postsecondary degree, reported greater emotional exhaustion, and who expressed less of a shared vision with their organization were more likely to indicate intentions to leave their job. Higher levels of collegiality were indirectly related to lower turnover intentions via lower levels of emotional exhaustion among teachers. Policy or Practice: Study findings can be used to inform leadership development, teacher professional development, and workforce compensation policy to foster greater organizational health, to improve teacher well-being, and to promote teacher retention.
A B S T R A C T Increasingly, states establish different thresholds on the Early Childhood Enviro... more A B S T R A C T Increasingly, states establish different thresholds on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised (ECERS–R), and use these thresholds to inform high-stakes decisions. However, the validity of the ECERS-R for these purposes is not well established. The objective of this study is to identify thresholds on the ECERS-R that are associated with preschool-aged children's social and cognitive development. Applying non-parametric modeling to the nationally-representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) dataset, we found that once classrooms achieved a score of 3.4 on the overall ECERS-R composite score, there was a leveling-off effect, such that no additional improvements to children's social, cognitive, or language outcomes were observed. Additional analyses found that ECERS-R subscales that focused on teaching and caregiving processes, as opposed to the physical environment, did not show leveling-off effects. The findings suggest that the usefulness of the ECERS-R for discerning associations with children's outcome may be limited to certain score ranges or subscales.
Research Findings: Although there has been considerable research on the associations between the ... more Research Findings: Although there has been considerable research on the associations between the qualifications of teachers in center-based settings and preschool-age children’s developmental outcomes, very little is known about the relationships between home provider qualifications and the developmental outcomes of toddlers who attend licensed family child care settings or unregulated family, friend, and neighbor care settings. Analyzing a sample of toddlers and their providers drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we found positive relationships between home-based quality and higher education degree (defined as an associate’s degree or at least a bachelor’s degree), field ofmajor, and coursework in early childhood education or a related field. However, provider qualifications were unrelated to children’s cognitive outcomes and related to a limited number of social-emotional outcomes. Practice or Policy: Our results suggest that as states consider the spectrum of supports needed for strengthening home-based child care in ways that facilitate responsive and developmentally supportive caregiving, strategies should include opportunities for home-based care providers to pursue higher education. A more nuanced analysis of the content and comprehensiveness of providers’ formal education is needed to better understand relationships between toddlers’ social and cognitive development and providers’ formal education.
Responding to the current national concern for enhanced commitments to early education, this book... more Responding to the current national concern for enhanced commitments to early education, this book examines what states are currently doing, what has proven effective, and what the existing body of knowledge offers educators, policymakers, and others seeking successful approaches to governance. Featuring chapters by prominent, thoughtful scholars and practitioners, this is the first volume to specifically focus on early childhood governance. Reflective and prospective, this seminal contribution is designed to be immediately germane to the burgeoning field of ECE. Readers will find the latest thinking, the most recent experiences, and an honest review of the governance issues facing ECE today and into the future—all in one resource.
As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding the... more As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding their perceptions of the challenges experienced and supports received as they returned to school to earn bachelor’s degrees. All participants were working in the early care and education field. Interviewees perceived the cohort structure of their B.A. program as important to their academic success; this positive assessment increased over time and continued after graduation. A majority reported that program services such as financial assistance and the scheduling and location of classes were critically important throughout their participation in the degree programs. In contrast, academic and technological challenges reportedly decreased over time, and thus students’ need for support such as tutoring, counseling services, and technology assistance decreased. Many students whose primary language was not English reported relying on English-language assistance throughout their school experience even when they perceived English academic work to be increasingly less challenging. These findings suggest that those who design and implement programs to assist degree attainment should invest in academic supports at the beginning of the program while other supports, including financial assistance, the schedule and location of classes, and the cohort itself, are critical throughout students’ educational experience.
Many child care centers temporarily move children and teachers in and out of their assigned class... more Many child care centers temporarily move children and teachers in and out of their assigned classrooms throughout the day. Such practices create frequent discontinuity in children's experiences in child care, including discontinuity in their peer and teacher relationships. This study examined the prevalence and patterns of teacher and child movement between classrooms, the characteristics of teachers and children who were more likely to move between classrooms on a daily basis, and the associations between children's and teachers' rate of daily movement between classrooms with children's social-emotional outcomes. A moderate to high prevalence of child and teacher movement between classrooms was observed (29% and 83%, respectively). Children who were younger, considered solitary, and who had been enrolled in their classroom for shorter periods of time were less likely to transition between classrooms. Children's rate of movement was a positive predictor of teachers' perceived conflict with children in their care, and a negative predictor of teachers' perceived closeness. In addition, the more frequently teachers moved, the less children were inclined to indicate liking their teachers or centers. However, the more frequently children moved, the more likely children were to indicate liking their peers and for their peers to indicate liking them. Results are interpreted in light of additional research avenues that can inform sensible daily teacher continuity practices.
Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contri... more Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contributed to the growing popularity of child care quality benchmarking efforts such as quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Consequently, there has been an increased interest in and a need for approaches to identifying thresholds, or cutpoints, in the child care quality measures used in these benchmarking efforts that differentiate between different levels of children's cognitive functioning. To date, research has provided little guidance to policymakers as to where these thresholds should be set. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) data set, this study explores the use of generalized additive modeling (GAM) as a method of identifying thresholds on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) in relation to toddlers' performance on the Mental Development subscale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (the Bayley Mental Development Scale Short Form–Research Edition, or BMDSF-R). The present findings suggest that simple linear models do not always correctly depict the relationships between ITERS scores and BMDSF-R scores and that GAM-derived thresholds were more effective at differentiating among children's performance levels on the BMDSF-R. Additionally, the present findings suggest that there is a minimum threshold on the ITERS that must be exceeded before significant improvements in children's cognitive development can be expected. There may also be a ceiling threshold on the ITERS, such that beyond a certain level, only marginal increases in children's BMDSF-R scores are observed.
The purpose of this brief is to support continued innovation and inquiry in early care and educat... more The purpose of this brief is to support continued innovation and inquiry in early care and education (ECE) quality improvement (QI) efforts by presenting an expanded range of QI alternatives in a novel framework. Despite an increased focus on QI at the federal, state, and local levels, there is little agreement on how to implement QI efforts effectively, particularly within state Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). To date, most evaluation designs have largely been unable to disentangle the effects of particular components of QI interventions, which makes evidence-based decision-making difficult for policymakers and practitioners alike. This brief outlines a conceptual framework of QI that captures a broad typology of QI approaches. The brief also includes a scan of the evidence base for QI efforts to identify those supported by a substantial or growing body of evidence, those for which there is little evidence or for which findings are mixed, and those that demonstrate null and negative impacts on global quality, teaching behaviors, or child outcomes.
Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contri... more Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contributed to the growing popularity of child care quality benchmarking efforts such as quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Consequently, there has been an increased interest in and a need for approaches to identifying thresholds, or cutpoints, in the child care quality measures used in these benchmarking efforts that differentiate between different levels of children's cognitive functioning. To date, research has provided little guidance to policymakers as to where these thresholds should be set. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) data set, this study explores the use of generalized additive modeling (GAM) as a method of identifying thresholds on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) in relation to toddlers' performance on the Mental Development subscale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (the Bayley Mental Development Scale Short Form–Research Edition, or BMDSF-R). The present findings suggest that simple linear models do not always correctly depict the relationships between ITERS scores and BMDSF-R scores and that GAM-derived thresholds were more effective at differentiating among children's performance levels on the BMDSF-R. Additionally, the present findings suggest that there is a minimum threshold on the ITERS that must be exceeded before significant improvements in children's cognitive development can be expected. There may also be a ceiling threshold on the ITERS, such that beyond a certain level, only marginal increases in children's BMDSF-R scores are observed.
3 1 CDWFI projects also provide support to high school students who are interested in studying ch... more 3 1 CDWFI projects also provide support to high school students who are interested in studying child development, and to students moving from an A.A. to a bachelor's degree. In some cases, CDWFI projects also provide support to students for graduate education in ECE or child development. This study, however, focuses exclusively on students in community colleges and the support services they receive from their CDWFI projects. The CDWFI project is one of the many partners of the Los Angeles County Early Care and Education Workforce Consortium, managed by LAUP and funded by First 5 LA. For more information, see: http://laup.net/workforce-professional-development.aspx
The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Family Child Care Environmen... more The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale-Revised (FCCERS-R) in high-stakes contexts. The results of an exploratory factor analysis revealed three dimensions of quality on the FCCERS-R: (1) Activities/Materials, (2) Language/Interaction, and Organization. This study also explored whether abridged versions of the FCCERS-R could serve as a proxy for the full instrument. In addition to subsets of FCCERS-R items created from the factor structure, purposively and randomly chosen item subsets were created. The purposively chosen subsets included 6-, 9-, and 12-item scales comprised of the items with the highest factor loading across the three factors, whereas the randomly chosen subsets consisted of 12 items. Results of a discriminant analysis showed that the factor subsets were poorer proxies for the total FCCERS-R score than were the other subsets, which demonstrated comparable internal consistencies and discriminant power as the full FCCERS-R when classifying homes into general quality categories. Implications for adopting shorter versions of the FCCERS-R are discussed.
Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outco... more Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outcomes often ignore teachers' and children's transitions between classrooms at a center throughout the day and only take into account head teacher qualifications. The objective of this investigation was to examine these traditional assumptions and to compare inferences made from these traditional models to methods accounting for transitions between classrooms and multiple teachers in a classroom. The study examined the receptive language, letter-word identification, and passage comprehension skills of 307 children enrolled in 49 community-based childcare centers serving primarily low-income families in Colorado. Results suggest that nearly one-third of children and over 80% of teachers moved daily between classrooms. Findings also reveal that failure to account for daily transitions between classrooms can affect interpretations of the relationship between teacher qualifications and child outcomes, with the model accounting for movement providing significant improvements in model fit and inference.
Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outco... more Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outcomes often ignore teachers' and children's transitions between classrooms at a center throughout the day and only take into account head teacher qualifications. The objective of this investigation was to examine these traditional assumptions and to compare inferences made from these traditional models to methods accounting for transitions between classrooms and multiple teachers in a classroom. The study examined the receptive language, letter-word identification, and passage comprehension skills of 307 children enrolled in 49 community-based childcare centers serving primarily low-income families in Colorado. Results suggest that nearly one-third of children and over 80% of teachers moved daily between classrooms. Findings also reveal that failure to account for daily transitions between classrooms can affect interpretations of the relationship between teacher qualifications and child outcomes, with the model accounting for movement providing significant improvements in model fit and inference.
Increasingly, states are implementing quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) as a means of... more Increasingly, states are implementing quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) as a means of improving the availability of high-quality child care and children's school readiness skills. A fundamental design decision under QRIS is where to set the thresholds on the quality measures used in the program assessment component of the QRIS. This study applied generalized additive modeling (GAM) on data from Colorado's QRIS in order to identify thresholds on several components of Colorado's QRIS, including the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), classroom ratios, and staff credentials. We found evidence of baseline thresholds that needed to be surpassed before significant relationships between quality and outcomes could be observed. In addition, there were ceiling thresholds, such that beyond certain cut-points, gains in quality were associated with little to no improvements in outcomes. Based on this work, it appears that GAM can be used to empirically identify thresholds, but more research is needed to understand the applicability of the GAM-derived thresholds in other early care contexts and settings.
As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding the... more As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding their perceptions of the challenges experienced and supports received as they returned to school to earn bachelor's degrees. All participants were working in the early care and education field. Interviewees perceived the cohort structure of their B.A. program as important to their academic success; this positive assessment increased over time and continued after graduation. A majority reported that program services such as financial assistance and the scheduling and location of classes were critically important throughout their participation in the degree programs. In contrast, academic and technological challenges reportedly decreased over time, and thus students' need for support such as tutoring, counseling services, and technology assistance decreased. Many students whose primary language was not English reported relying on English-language assistance throughout their school experience even when they perceived English academic work to be increasingly less challenging. These findings suggest that those who design and implement programs to assist degree attainment should invest in academic supports at the beginning of the program while other supports, including financial assistance, the schedule and location of classes, and the cohort itself, are critical throughout students' educational experience.
This qualitative study sought to understand whether there were difference in how early childhood ... more This qualitative study sought to understand whether there were difference in how early childhood education (ECE) teachers who stayed in or left their jobs interpreted their job demands and resources. It also sought to understand factors that shaped teachers’ turnover and retention decisions. Twenty-six teachers who worked in subsidized ECE programs that blended multiple public funding sources were interviewed, 14 of whom stayed in their jobs and 12 of whom left their jobs. We found teachers’ reasons for leaving or staying were complex and took into consideration workplace and family factors. Teachers who stayed tended to share the same job frustrations as those who left, namely a misalignment between job demands and resources, but those who stayed were more willing to engage creatively in solving workplace problems. Teachers who stayed placed greater value on professional development opportunities than teachers who left, and these key job rewards factored into retention decisions. Teachers who left often felt that lacking key job resources undermined their sense of competence at being an effective teacher and viewed the psychosocial workplace climate less favorably than teachers who stayed. For many teachers, the value they placed on different job rewards was influenced by family factors.
This study examines the Denver Preschool Program (DPP), a voter-approved sales tax initiative tha... more This study examines the Denver Preschool Program (DPP), a voter-approved sales tax initiative that provides a tuition credit for four-year old children to attend preschool. Using propensity weighting and doubly robust modeling on ten cohorts of kindergartners from 2009-2010 through 2018-2019, we found DPP participants were more likely to read at grade level and less likely to be retained or to be chronically absent than their similarly-situated non-DPP peers. The absolute magnitude of the effect sizes for reading achievement and chronic absenteeism ranged from 0.21 to 0.28, and were considered substantively important. The relationships were stronger for DPP participants who had enrolled in a school-based, pre-kindergarten program than DPP participants who had enrolled in a community-based preschool, and the effect sizes were almost twice as large for pre-kindergarten participants than for community-based participants on reading achievement. Policy implications are discussed.
Research Findings: This study examined the job demands and job resources of a sample of 273 early... more Research Findings: This study examined the job demands and job resources of a sample of 273 early childhood teachers in Colorado. The study explored the relationships among their job demands and resources, occupational burn-out, and turnover intentions using a two-level mediated model. Study find-ings suggest that teachers’ emotional exhaustion and depersonalization from the work is a function of lack of job control, lack of collegial relation-ships within the program, and children’s behaviors that they perceived to be challenging. However, teachers also reported being more fulfilled with their work when they worked in programs in which there was a shared vision and that allowed for greater job control. Additionally, teachers who earned lower wages, held a postsecondary degree, reported greater emotional exhaustion, and who expressed less of a shared vision with their organization were more likely to indicate intentions to leave their job. Higher levels of collegiality were indirectly related to lower turnover intentions via lower levels of emotional exhaustion among teachers. Policy or Practice: Study findings can be used to inform leadership development, teacher professional development, and workforce compensation policy to foster greater organizational health, to improve teacher well-being, and to promote teacher retention.
A B S T R A C T Increasingly, states establish different thresholds on the Early Childhood Enviro... more A B S T R A C T Increasingly, states establish different thresholds on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised (ECERS–R), and use these thresholds to inform high-stakes decisions. However, the validity of the ECERS-R for these purposes is not well established. The objective of this study is to identify thresholds on the ECERS-R that are associated with preschool-aged children's social and cognitive development. Applying non-parametric modeling to the nationally-representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) dataset, we found that once classrooms achieved a score of 3.4 on the overall ECERS-R composite score, there was a leveling-off effect, such that no additional improvements to children's social, cognitive, or language outcomes were observed. Additional analyses found that ECERS-R subscales that focused on teaching and caregiving processes, as opposed to the physical environment, did not show leveling-off effects. The findings suggest that the usefulness of the ECERS-R for discerning associations with children's outcome may be limited to certain score ranges or subscales.
Research Findings: Although there has been considerable research on the associations between the ... more Research Findings: Although there has been considerable research on the associations between the qualifications of teachers in center-based settings and preschool-age children’s developmental outcomes, very little is known about the relationships between home provider qualifications and the developmental outcomes of toddlers who attend licensed family child care settings or unregulated family, friend, and neighbor care settings. Analyzing a sample of toddlers and their providers drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we found positive relationships between home-based quality and higher education degree (defined as an associate’s degree or at least a bachelor’s degree), field ofmajor, and coursework in early childhood education or a related field. However, provider qualifications were unrelated to children’s cognitive outcomes and related to a limited number of social-emotional outcomes. Practice or Policy: Our results suggest that as states consider the spectrum of supports needed for strengthening home-based child care in ways that facilitate responsive and developmentally supportive caregiving, strategies should include opportunities for home-based care providers to pursue higher education. A more nuanced analysis of the content and comprehensiveness of providers’ formal education is needed to better understand relationships between toddlers’ social and cognitive development and providers’ formal education.
Responding to the current national concern for enhanced commitments to early education, this book... more Responding to the current national concern for enhanced commitments to early education, this book examines what states are currently doing, what has proven effective, and what the existing body of knowledge offers educators, policymakers, and others seeking successful approaches to governance. Featuring chapters by prominent, thoughtful scholars and practitioners, this is the first volume to specifically focus on early childhood governance. Reflective and prospective, this seminal contribution is designed to be immediately germane to the burgeoning field of ECE. Readers will find the latest thinking, the most recent experiences, and an honest review of the governance issues facing ECE today and into the future—all in one resource.
As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding the... more As part of a longitudinal study, the authors interviewed 73 nontraditional students regarding their perceptions of the challenges experienced and supports received as they returned to school to earn bachelor’s degrees. All participants were working in the early care and education field. Interviewees perceived the cohort structure of their B.A. program as important to their academic success; this positive assessment increased over time and continued after graduation. A majority reported that program services such as financial assistance and the scheduling and location of classes were critically important throughout their participation in the degree programs. In contrast, academic and technological challenges reportedly decreased over time, and thus students’ need for support such as tutoring, counseling services, and technology assistance decreased. Many students whose primary language was not English reported relying on English-language assistance throughout their school experience even when they perceived English academic work to be increasingly less challenging. These findings suggest that those who design and implement programs to assist degree attainment should invest in academic supports at the beginning of the program while other supports, including financial assistance, the schedule and location of classes, and the cohort itself, are critical throughout students’ educational experience.
Many child care centers temporarily move children and teachers in and out of their assigned class... more Many child care centers temporarily move children and teachers in and out of their assigned classrooms throughout the day. Such practices create frequent discontinuity in children's experiences in child care, including discontinuity in their peer and teacher relationships. This study examined the prevalence and patterns of teacher and child movement between classrooms, the characteristics of teachers and children who were more likely to move between classrooms on a daily basis, and the associations between children's and teachers' rate of daily movement between classrooms with children's social-emotional outcomes. A moderate to high prevalence of child and teacher movement between classrooms was observed (29% and 83%, respectively). Children who were younger, considered solitary, and who had been enrolled in their classroom for shorter periods of time were less likely to transition between classrooms. Children's rate of movement was a positive predictor of teachers' perceived conflict with children in their care, and a negative predictor of teachers' perceived closeness. In addition, the more frequently teachers moved, the less children were inclined to indicate liking their teachers or centers. However, the more frequently children moved, the more likely children were to indicate liking their peers and for their peers to indicate liking them. Results are interpreted in light of additional research avenues that can inform sensible daily teacher continuity practices.
Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contri... more Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contributed to the growing popularity of child care quality benchmarking efforts such as quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Consequently, there has been an increased interest in and a need for approaches to identifying thresholds, or cutpoints, in the child care quality measures used in these benchmarking efforts that differentiate between different levels of children's cognitive functioning. To date, research has provided little guidance to policymakers as to where these thresholds should be set. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) data set, this study explores the use of generalized additive modeling (GAM) as a method of identifying thresholds on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) in relation to toddlers' performance on the Mental Development subscale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (the Bayley Mental Development Scale Short Form–Research Edition, or BMDSF-R). The present findings suggest that simple linear models do not always correctly depict the relationships between ITERS scores and BMDSF-R scores and that GAM-derived thresholds were more effective at differentiating among children's performance levels on the BMDSF-R. Additionally, the present findings suggest that there is a minimum threshold on the ITERS that must be exceeded before significant improvements in children's cognitive development can be expected. There may also be a ceiling threshold on the ITERS, such that beyond a certain level, only marginal increases in children's BMDSF-R scores are observed.
The purpose of this brief is to support continued innovation and inquiry in early care and educat... more The purpose of this brief is to support continued innovation and inquiry in early care and education (ECE) quality improvement (QI) efforts by presenting an expanded range of QI alternatives in a novel framework. Despite an increased focus on QI at the federal, state, and local levels, there is little agreement on how to implement QI efforts effectively, particularly within state Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). To date, most evaluation designs have largely been unable to disentangle the effects of particular components of QI interventions, which makes evidence-based decision-making difficult for policymakers and practitioners alike. This brief outlines a conceptual framework of QI that captures a broad typology of QI approaches. The brief also includes a scan of the evidence base for QI efforts to identify those supported by a substantial or growing body of evidence, those for which there is little evidence or for which findings are mixed, and those that demonstrate null and negative impacts on global quality, teaching behaviors, or child outcomes.
Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contri... more Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contributed to the growing popularity of child care quality benchmarking efforts such as quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Consequently, there has been an increased interest in and a need for approaches to identifying thresholds, or cutpoints, in the child care quality measures used in these benchmarking efforts that differentiate between different levels of children's cognitive functioning. To date, research has provided little guidance to policymakers as to where these thresholds should be set. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) data set, this study explores the use of generalized additive modeling (GAM) as a method of identifying thresholds on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) in relation to toddlers' performance on the Mental Development subscale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (the Bayley Mental Development Scale Short Form–Research Edition, or BMDSF-R). The present findings suggest that simple linear models do not always correctly depict the relationships between ITERS scores and BMDSF-R scores and that GAM-derived thresholds were more effective at differentiating among children's performance levels on the BMDSF-R. Additionally, the present findings suggest that there is a minimum threshold on the ITERS that must be exceeded before significant improvements in children's cognitive development can be expected. There may also be a ceiling threshold on the ITERS, such that beyond a certain level, only marginal increases in children's BMDSF-R scores are observed.
3 1 CDWFI projects also provide support to high school students who are interested in studying ch... more 3 1 CDWFI projects also provide support to high school students who are interested in studying child development, and to students moving from an A.A. to a bachelor's degree. In some cases, CDWFI projects also provide support to students for graduate education in ECE or child development. This study, however, focuses exclusively on students in community colleges and the support services they receive from their CDWFI projects. The CDWFI project is one of the many partners of the Los Angeles County Early Care and Education Workforce Consortium, managed by LAUP and funded by First 5 LA. For more information, see: http://laup.net/workforce-professional-development.aspx
The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Family Child Care Environmen... more The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale-Revised (FCCERS-R) in high-stakes contexts. The results of an exploratory factor analysis revealed three dimensions of quality on the FCCERS-R: (1) Activities/Materials, (2) Language/Interaction, and Organization. This study also explored whether abridged versions of the FCCERS-R could serve as a proxy for the full instrument. In addition to subsets of FCCERS-R items created from the factor structure, purposively and randomly chosen item subsets were created. The purposively chosen subsets included 6-, 9-, and 12-item scales comprised of the items with the highest factor loading across the three factors, whereas the randomly chosen subsets consisted of 12 items. Results of a discriminant analysis showed that the factor subsets were poorer proxies for the total FCCERS-R score than were the other subsets, which demonstrated comparable internal consistencies and discriminant power as the full FCCERS-R when classifying homes into general quality categories. Implications for adopting shorter versions of the FCCERS-R are discussed.
Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outco... more Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outcomes often ignore teachers' and children's transitions between classrooms at a center throughout the day and only take into account head teacher qualifications. The objective of this investigation was to examine these traditional assumptions and to compare inferences made from these traditional models to methods accounting for transitions between classrooms and multiple teachers in a classroom. The study examined the receptive language, letter-word identification, and passage comprehension skills of 307 children enrolled in 49 community-based childcare centers serving primarily low-income families in Colorado. Results suggest that nearly one-third of children and over 80% of teachers moved daily between classrooms. Findings also reveal that failure to account for daily transitions between classrooms can affect interpretations of the relationship between teacher qualifications and child outcomes, with the model accounting for movement providing significant improvements in model fit and inference.
Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outco... more Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outcomes often ignore teachers' and children's transitions between classrooms at a center throughout the day and only take into account head teacher qualifications. The objective of this investigation was to examine these traditional assumptions and to compare inferences made from these traditional models to methods accounting for transitions between classrooms and multiple teachers in a classroom. The study examined the receptive language, letter-word identification, and passage comprehension skills of 307 children enrolled in 49 community-based childcare centers serving primarily low-income families in Colorado. Results suggest that nearly one-third of children and over 80% of teachers moved daily between classrooms. Findings also reveal that failure to account for daily transitions between classrooms can affect interpretations of the relationship between teacher qualifications and child outcomes, with the model accounting for movement providing significant improvements in model fit and inference.
Increasingly, states are implementing quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) as a means of... more Increasingly, states are implementing quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) as a means of improving the availability of high-quality child care and children's school readiness skills. A fundamental design decision under QRIS is where to set the thresholds on the quality measures used in the program assessment component of the QRIS. This study applied generalized additive modeling (GAM) on data from Colorado's QRIS in order to identify thresholds on several components of Colorado's QRIS, including the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), classroom ratios, and staff credentials. We found evidence of baseline thresholds that needed to be surpassed before significant relationships between quality and outcomes could be observed. In addition, there were ceiling thresholds, such that beyond certain cut-points, gains in quality were associated with little to no improvements in outcomes. Based on this work, it appears that GAM can be used to empirically identify thresholds, but more research is needed to understand the applicability of the GAM-derived thresholds in other early care contexts and settings.
This book describes the ways in which the mentoring terrain in early care and education has chang... more This book describes the ways in which the mentoring terrain in early care and education has changed over the last two decades, and the multiple contexts in which mentoring now occurs. It offers mentors, coaches, and/or technical assistance providers an effective, activity-based way to reflect on, practice, and sharpen skills for working with early childhood practitioners, and it can be adapted to a wide variety of early care and education settings.
Uploads
Papers by Diana Schaack
preschool-age children’s developmental outcomes, very little is known about
the relationships between home provider qualifications and the developmental
outcomes of toddlers who attend licensed family child care settings or unregulated
family, friend, and neighbor care settings. Analyzing a sample of toddlers
and their providers drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth
Cohort, we found positive relationships between home-based quality and
higher education degree (defined as an associate’s degree or at least a bachelor’s
degree), field ofmajor, and coursework in early childhood education or a related
field. However, provider qualifications were unrelated to children’s cognitive
outcomes and related to a limited number of social-emotional outcomes.
Practice or Policy: Our results suggest that as states consider the spectrum of
supports needed for strengthening home-based child care in ways that facilitate
responsive and developmentally supportive caregiving, strategies should
include opportunities for home-based care providers to pursue higher education.
A more nuanced analysis of the content and comprehensiveness of providers’
formal education is needed to better understand relationships between
toddlers’ social and cognitive development and providers’ formal education.
preschool-age children’s developmental outcomes, very little is known about
the relationships between home provider qualifications and the developmental
outcomes of toddlers who attend licensed family child care settings or unregulated
family, friend, and neighbor care settings. Analyzing a sample of toddlers
and their providers drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth
Cohort, we found positive relationships between home-based quality and
higher education degree (defined as an associate’s degree or at least a bachelor’s
degree), field ofmajor, and coursework in early childhood education or a related
field. However, provider qualifications were unrelated to children’s cognitive
outcomes and related to a limited number of social-emotional outcomes.
Practice or Policy: Our results suggest that as states consider the spectrum of
supports needed for strengthening home-based child care in ways that facilitate
responsive and developmentally supportive caregiving, strategies should
include opportunities for home-based care providers to pursue higher education.
A more nuanced analysis of the content and comprehensiveness of providers’
formal education is needed to better understand relationships between
toddlers’ social and cognitive development and providers’ formal education.