Head Start Teachers' Professional Development, Well-being, Attitudes, and Practices: Understanding Changes Over Time and Predictive Associations.

Early care and education (ECE) teachers shape children's daily experiences in many ways. Specifically, teachers' well-being, attitudes about child development, and teaching practices are central influences on children's learning. One crucial way ECE programs support teachers to enhance children's learning environments is through the provision of professional development (PD), but little research has examined the PD provided by ECE programs in the absence of focused initiatives to support teachers. In this descriptive study, we use data from a nationally representative study of Head Start teachers (N = 484) to explore whether teachers' job satisfaction, depression, developmentally appropriate attitudes, and frequency of engagement in math and literacy activities are associated with the number of (a) overall PD supports available to teachers, (b) curriculum supports received by teachers, and (c) mentoring supports received by teachers. Many of the associations between teachers' outcomes and overall PD supports, curriculum supports, and mentoring supports were not statistically significant, perhaps because the PD variables do not measure the quality or content of the PD provided. However, those PD supports that were significantly associated with outcomes were associated with specific teacher outcomes in ways consistent with theory, although associations were relatively weak. To contextualize these findings, we describe how PD supports and teachers' outcomes have changed over nearly a decade that encompasses some key Head Start policy changes. This research contributes to our understanding of scalable ways to prepare and support teachers of some of the nation's most vulnerable children.

I. QUALITY THRESHOLDS, FEATURES, AND DOSAGE IN EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW.

This monograph addresses the hypotheses that preschool children benefit most strongly when early care and education (ECE) is at or above a threshold of quality, has specific quality features, and/or is of longer duration. These issues are pivotal in recent policies designed to improve the quality of ECE, especially for children from low-income families. Evidence of quality thresholds in which ECE quality has stronger impacts in settings with moderate to high levels of quality than in settings with low quality would inform policy initiatives in which monetary incentives or consequences are allocated to ECE settings based on their level of quality. Evidence that specific features of quality, such as quality of teacher-child interactions and of literacy and mathematics instruction, are predictors of gains in child outcomes could help inform quality improvement efforts. Evidence that more time spent in center-based ECE or in instruction in specific content areas predict larger gains among preschoolers could be useful in designing public preschool programs such as Head Start or prekindergarten. Secondary data analyses of eight large studies of preschool children in center-based ECE were conducted. Analyses focused on quality thresholds and quality features examined the extent to which three types of quality measures predicted gains in children's language, literacy, mathematics, and social skills. The measures comprised (1) global quality measures that provide an overall or global rating of quality, focusing on interactions as well as on physical features of the environment, activities, and routines; (2) interaction-specific measures that focus in depth on the quality of interactions between teachers and children with respect to instructional and emotional support; and (3) domain-specific measures that focus on the quality of instruction and stimulation in specific content areas such as early language and literacy. The goal was to provide replicated analyses with data from several projects in order to address each question. Multilevel analyses that controlled for entry skills were conducted, and results were combined by using meta-analysis, nonlinear and nonparametric analyses, and propensity score analyses. With respect to thresholds, the analyses suggest that increases in the quality of instruction are related to larger gains in language and literacy outcomes, but only in higher quality classrooms. Results point to stronger associations between quality and child outcomes in higher versus lower quality classrooms for measures of the instructional quality of teacher-child interactions and of the quality of specific activities thought to promote early literacy, such as teaching phonemic skills and book reading. In addition, the items focusing on quality of interactions on the global measure also predicted acquisition of language and social skills in higher but not in lower quality classrooms. With respect to quality features, interaction-specific and especially domain-specific measures of quality remained significant predictors of child outcomes, whereas global measures of quality were never significant positive predictors, when both global and more specific measures of quality were included simultaneously in analyses. There is thus consistent evidence that more specific measures of quality are better predictors of child outcomes. With respect to dosage, several approaches were used in operationalizing both the cumulative and current dosage of children's exposure to ECE. Propensity score analyses that included baseline scores on outcomes to control for selection into larger dosages suggested that children with two as opposed to one year of Head Start had stronger vocabulary and literacy skills both immediately upon exit from Head Start and at the end of kindergarten. Fewer absences and more observed time spent on instruction were associated with stronger gains in literacy and mathematics skills. Finally, findings revealed that more time spent on instruction in classrooms with higher overall quality was particularly important to the development of mathematics skills. No other replicated evidence of quality by quantity interactions emerged.

III. TESTING FOR QUALITY THRESHOLDS AND FEATURES IN EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION.

In this chapter, we report on the analyses focusing on both quality thresholds and quality features. First, we address questions about quality thresholds, using two analytic approaches. The analyses ask whether there is evidence suggesting thresholds in the association between a specific quality measure and a specific child outcome. Second, we extend these analyses to ask whether each child outcome is more strongly related to global quality measures or to quality measures that measure teacher-child interactions or quality of instruction in a given content area. The research to date provides the basis for the articulation of two hypotheses related to quality thresholds and features: (1) the quality of ECE is a stronger predictor of residualized gains in child outcomes in classrooms with higher quality than in classrooms with lower quality and (2) more specific measures of quality are stronger predictors of residualized gains in child outcomes than are global measures. We turn now to analyses intended to address these hypotheses by using data from several data sets.

Neighborhoods as a developmental context: a multilevel analysis of neighborhood effects on Head Start families and children.

Neighborhoods have been recognized in theory and research as an important context for child development. This study used data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) and Census 2000 to assess the underlying factor structure and impact of neighborhood factors on child cognitive and behavioral outcomes, including the critical family and social factors that may mediate and/or moderate these relationships. Factor analyses found five factors described Head Start neighborhoods. After controlling for family and child factors, multilevel analyses found significant direct effects of neighborhood factors on Head Start children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes. There were no mediation effects found for family or social variables between neighborhood factors and child outcomes. A large number of moderation effects were found although there was not a clear pattern to the results. Future research, policy, and practice implications are discussed.

Mother-child bookreading in low-income families: correlates and outcomes during the first three years of life.

About half of 2,581 low-income mothers reported reading daily to their children. At 14 months, the odds of reading daily increased by the child being firstborn or female. At 24 and 36 months, these odds increased by maternal verbal ability or education and by the child being firstborn or of Early Head Start status. White mothers read more than did Hispanic or African American mothers. For English-speaking children, concurrent reading was associated with vocabulary and comprehension at 14 months, and with vocabulary and cognitive development at 24 months. A pattern of daily reading over the 3 data points for English-speaking children and daily reading at any 1 data point for Spanish-speaking children predicted children's language and cognition at 36 months. Path analyses suggest reciprocal and snowballing relations between maternal bookreading and children's vocabulary.

The effectiveness of early head start for 3-year-old children and their parents: lessons for policy and programs.

Early Head Start, a federal program begun in 1995 for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers, was evaluated through a randomized trial of 3,001 families in 17 programs. Interviews with primary caregivers, child assessments, and observations of parent-child interactions were completed when children were 3 years old. Caregivers were diverse in race-ethnicity, language, and other characteristics. Regression-adjusted impact analyses showed that 3-year-old program children performed better than did control children in cognitive and language development, displayed higher emotional engagement of the parent and sustained attention with play objects, and were lower in aggressive behavior. Compared with controls, Early Head Start parents were more emotionally supportive, provided more language and learning stimulation, read to their children more, and spanked less. The strongest and most numerous impacts were for programs that offered a mix of home-visiting and center-based services and that fully implemented the performance standards early.