Examining the Effects of Changes in Classroom Quality on Within‐Child Changes in Achievement and Behavioral Outcomes

Abstract

This study examines whether changes in classroom quality predict within‐child changes in achievement and behavioral problems in elementary school (ages spanning approximately 6–11 years old). Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of children in predominantly low‐income, nonurban communities (n = 1,078), we relied on child fixed effects modeling, which controlled for stable factors that could bias the effects of classroom quality. In general, we found that changes in classroom quality had small and statistically nonsignificant effects on achievement and behavior. However, we found that moving into a high‐quality classroom, particularly those rated as high in Classroom Organization, had positive effects on achievement and behavior for children with significant exposure to poverty in early life.

Early maternal language input and classroom instructional quality in relation to children’s literacy trajectories from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

“…More years of better classroom quality was predictive of third grade reading comprehension skills—but not word recognition skills—with a small effect size ( d = .08). In a separate study, Watts et al (2021) used an econometrics method to examine between-child and within-child changes in CLASS quality across elementary school; finding a small, but reliable effect of CLASS Instructional Support on an academic achievement composite measure (i.e., language, literacy, and math; β = .02). Although these previous studies provide only mixed evidence of small associations between CLASS quality and child literacy/academic skills, our current study extends this prior work by examining early maternal language input as well as CLASS Instructional Support in relation to growth in children’s literacy skills across the entire elementary school period.…”

“…A variety of studies have used the CLASS to link general classroom instructional quality to children’s literacy and other academic outcomes. Although a majority of these studies focused on CLASS quality and outcomes measured during preschool (e.g., Burchinal et al, 2014; Carr et al, 2019; Hamre et al, 2014), several studies have also focused on the elementary grades (e.g., Ansari & Pianta, 2018; Vernon-Feagans, Mokrova, et al, 2019; Watts et al, 2021). In these studies, CLASS Instructional Support has often emerged as the most robust and consistent predictor of literacy skills.…”

“…As proximal processes unfold over extended periods of time, classroom quality may vary quite dramatically from one grade to the next or remain relatively stable for some children compared with others (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Three previous studies have been conducted by our research team to examine classroom quality and children’s literacy skills using the same sample of children used in the current study (Burchinal et al, 2014; Vernon-Feagans, Mokrova, et al, 2019; Watts et al, 2021). Burchinal et al (2014) found no reliable associations between all three domains of the CLASS measured in pre-K and children’s concurrent word recognition or phonological awareness skills.…”

Emotional quality of early education programs improves language learning: A within‐child across context design

“…Maldonado-Carreño & Votruba-Drzal, 2011;Watts et al, 2021).Within-child across context design is atypical in the field of ECE effectiveness as they are labor-and costintensive, requiring individual children to be tracked as they disperse across classrooms rather than focusing on changes within class groups. When such data are available, however, they present an opportunity to assess the effects of change in quality, both positive and negative, focussed on the individual child as they experience different classroom contexts.…”

“…In contrast to standard value‐add approaches that examine whether classroom‐level changes in outcomes for children are associated with assessed interactional quality of the room, our within‐child across context design analyses how each child's rate of learning changes as they move between classrooms of different assessed quality. Applying this strategy, variation in unmeasured confounding individual characteristics is attenuated (Hoffman & Stawski, 2009 ; Maldonado‐Carreño & Votruba‐Drzal, 2011 ; Watts et al, 2021 ). Our study provides an analytically sophisticated and design‐controlled approach to identifying ECE program inputs to children's cognitive development.…”