Accurate, reliable, and scalable measurement of classroom quality represent a critical tool for ensuring that young children benefit from early learning programs. The Early Childhood Classroom Observation (ECCO) study was designed to better understand how video recordings can support high-quality measurement of pre-kindergarten (pre-K) classrooms,…

In this study, we examined the relation of observed classroom practices to language and literacy achievement and the moderation of this relation for students from pre-K to sixth grade. A total of 136 studies (N = 107,882 participants) met the inclusion criteria, of which 108 studies were included for meta-analysis and the other 28 studies were…

Sensing technologies that provide continuous, real-time information about teachers' and students' individual experiences are increasingly being applied to classroom-based research. Sensing technologies provide a possible alternative to costly and time-intensive in-person or hand-coded observations and have the potential to increase our present…

This mixed-methods study aimed to examine how the quality of interactions between a paraprofessional and a preschooler during playtime impacts students' language development. The data collected and analyzed included in-depth classroom observations and interviews with paraprofessionals. Data measured the paraprofessional's actions, trends,…

This study explores the validity of the Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol (CRIOP) an instrument that measures the implementation of culturally responsive instruction (CRI) in K-8 classrooms with multilingual students. The validity study uses a Rasch measurement approach. With strong findings from analyses, including…

When classroom observations are increasingly used for accountability and evaluation purposes, a deeper understanding of the psychometric properties of such measurement tools is needed. The present study took a unique approach to examine the psychometric properties of a commonly used classroom observation measure by testing the reliability of…

To provide a landscape of mathematics activities children experience in U.S. preschool and kindergarten classrooms, we observed time children spent in mathematics activities (and -- as a contrast -- literacy) in 101 geographically diverse early childhood classrooms in seven U.S. states. We also observed what mathematics content, grouping…

This study examines how well school groups in the Coastal Plains region of a southeastern state align with the socio-emotional strategies for four-year-olds outlined by the Key Practices in the Pyramid Model Framework (Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool-Research Edition [Manual], Baltimore, MD: Brookes, 2014). Many schools in these groups serve…

Purpose: Estimating the sequential associations between educators' and children's talk during language learning interactions requires careful consideration of factors that may impact measurement stability and resultant inferences. This research note will describe a preliminary study that used generalizability theory to understand the contribution…

The purpose of this study was to examine the comparability of counts of embedded instruction learning trials when different methods of viewing and recording direct behavioral observations were used. In 13 classrooms, while videotaping embedded instruction implementation for a larger randomized controlled efficacy trial was occurring, teachers'…

In this study, we investigated how early childhood teachers' perspectives on their enacted literacy instruction aligned with the perspectives of observers of that same instruction. Two master teachers and two researchers, all with early childhood expertise, observed and reported their perspectives of 45 instances of literacy instruction. These…

The aim of this action research was to make significant changes to mathematics teaching in a combined second and third primary school class based on the characteristics of high-quality mathematics teaching. A further aim was to improve student satisfaction with the lessons. The changes in teaching were systematically monitored and reflected upon…

Despite an increasing research interest in subject-specific teacher knowledge, there is limited research on teachers' knowledge of English as a foreign language (EFL) in early childhood education (ECE). This paper, therefore, reports a mixed-methods study which investigated the relationships between ECE EFL teachers' knowledge and their practices…

With the aim to provide teachers with more specific, frequent, and actionable feedback about their teaching, we explore how Large Language Models (LLMs) can be used to estimate "Instructional Support" domain scores of the CLassroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), a widely used observation protocol. We design a machine learning…

Research Findings: A total of 54 videotaped mathematics activity observations drawn from 27 different pre-kindergarten classrooms in an urban public schools system in the U.S. were coded using 2 observational measures: (1) a general measure, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS); and (2) a math-specific measure, the High Impact…