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

2. Why Care About Early Childhood?

3. 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

4. 90% What We Know of a child’s brain development happens before age 5
Source: Harvard Center for the Developing Child

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

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

13. 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

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

15. Targeted MTP Coaching Improves Interactions5
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

16. MTP Course Improves Interactions*

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

18. 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

19. 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.”

20. 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

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

22. 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