Features of Pre-Kindergarten Programs, Classrooms, and Teachers: Do They Predict Observed Classroom Quality and Child-Teacher Interactions?

Abstract

This study draws from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's Multi-State Pre-Kindergarten Study to examine the extent to which program, classroom, and teacher attributes of the program ecology predict observed quality and teacher-child interactions in a sample of 238 classrooms representing 6 states' pre-kindergarten programs. Quality was assessed observationally at the global level and for specific teaching practices. Quality was lower in classrooms with more than 60% of the children from homes below the poverty line, when teachers lacked formal training (or a degree) in early childhood education, and held less child-centered beliefs. Program and teacher attributes were statistically significant, albeit quite modest, predictors of observed quality. Location of the program in a school building, child:staff ratio, and length of day had no relation to quality. State-level factors not attributable to the teacher, program, and classroom factors examined accounted for the majority of explained variance in observed quality. Results suggest that the association between distal features of programs and teachers and quality in pre-kindergarten is more similar to elementary school settings than to child care settings and that quality appears most closely related to proximal teacher and child characteristics.