“Assignment: Impact!” Creating the Foundation for Success Robert C. Pianta San Antonio Public Education Forum April 2, 2019

Why Care About Early Childhood?

Reality Check Too many children are struggling as they enter school 2in5 enter kindergarten ready to fail 40% unprepared in critical areas literacy social skills math self-regulation Children who start behind rarely catch up – the gap widens Source: Elevate Early Education

90% What We Know of a child’s brain development happens before age 5 Source: Harvard Center for the Developing Child

Social interactions and relationships make this happen More than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second in the first years of life. Social interactions and relationships make this happen Source: Center on the Developing Child (2009). Five Numbers to Remember About Early Childhood Development (Brief). Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.

Relationships grow the brain. How does this happen? Serve and return interactions Source: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2016). From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts: A Science-Based Approach to Building a More Promising Future for Young Children and Families.

Child-teacher Interactions Matter Relationships with adults (parents, caregivers, teachers) form “infrastructure” for school success: Social competence with peers Self-regulation, emotional self-control Task orientation, persistence, following directions Immune system health, brain development, stress response Relationships with teachers and caregivers define quality Standardized, observational assessments - CLASS

Dimensions of Interaction: CLASS P-3 Positive climate Negative climate Teacher sensitivity Regard for student perspectives Effective behavior management Instructional learning formats Productivity Concept development Quality of feedback Language modeling Emotional Support Organization/ Management Instructional Support

Understanding the CLASS Framework: Overview Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions Understanding the CLASS Framework: Overview What to Say and Do Explain that this graph shows how much the effectiveness of interactions varies. Explain to teachers that based on CLASS data collected from observing several thousand pre-k-3rd classrooms throughout the country, researchers know that Children tend to experience all, but mostly moderate to high, levels of effective interactions for Emotional Support and Classroom Organization. Most children attend pre-k-3rd grade classrooms characterized by low levels of instructional support.

Interactions and Children’s PK Development Emotional Support Instructional Support ECERS-R Total Structural Receptive Language  Expressive Language Rhyming Letter Naming Math Skills Social Competence Behavior Problems Changes in children’s development from beginning to end of preschool Mashburn, et al. (in press) As you can see, what we found in these preschool classrooms was that the CLASS Instructional dimensions in particular were associated with children’s language learning (can go through more specifics). Please note that this analysis used a previous grouping of CLASS dimensions so ES contained PC, NC-r, TS, OC-r, and BM, and IS contained PD, ILF, CD, and FDK

Gains in Grade 1 Achievement in Instructionally Supportive Classrooms 1st Grade Instructional Support 107 106 105 Standardized tests of achievement adjusted 104 103 High educ. 102 101 Low educ. 100 99 98 Low Moderate High

Can We Support Teachers to Change Their Interactions with Children? YES!

Improving Interactions and Their Value Specific supports to teachers that improve interactions – MyTeachingPartner CLASS – specific definitions of interactions – a target MTP Video Library MTP Coaching MTP Course All tested in experiments

Video Clips of Effective CLASS Interaction CLASS examples: PK-3 Video Clips of Effective CLASS Interaction

Targeted MTP Coaching Improves Interactions 5 4.5 Coaching Language modeling Control 4 TALKING POINTS Teachers in the MTP consultancy were compared to teachers with web-only access. On average, you can see teachers in MTP improved over the year in Teacher Sensitivity (TS). Teachers in the web group decreased a little in quality in TS. 3.5 April May June October November January March September December February

MTP Course Improves Interactions *

MTP Online Course Improves Interactions Cohen’s d End of Course 1 End of Course 2

Effects of MTP Support in PK Teachers exposed to MTP resources Behaved more sensitively Increased students’ engagement in instruction Improved language stimulation techniques Children with MTP teachers Made greater gains in tests of early literacy Experienced lower levels of problem behavior Demonstrated higher levels of expressive language and self-control TALKING POINTS: Here are more of the findings of the MTP Professional Development Study. 18 18 18 18

Interactions Matter to Teachers Too “I would say this is the best professional development opportunity that I have had in my 23 years of teaching.” “Having a consultant made me more reflective and focused on what I need to do each day.” “It’s great to have someone to bounce ideas off of, reflect on my practice, and get feedback from.” “My consultant is a 2nd pair of eyes, able to look beyond the surface to see things that make me think about my class.”

What Have We Learned? Improving Early Education Quality and Impact Interactions can be assessed district-wide with a high degree of consistency – Creating a language and a lens for classroom practice is powerful Interactions can improve predictably – in turn increasing children’s readiness skills These benefits are conditional – They depend on strong and focused implementation, training, and regular attention Focused, district-wide efforts yield benefits: Dallas ISD, LA, GA, FL results. P-3 efforts are foundational

Assignment: Impact! Governance Curriculum, Transition Funding impact Workforce Training Workforce Supply Assessments, Accountability Data

TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE …the results are long-lasting The data repeatedly show that as adults our children will experience…. Here is the return on investment more education higher graduation rates increased income improved equity better health stronger economy