The Relations of Observed Pre-K Classroom Quality Profiles to Children's Achievement and Social Competence

Abstract

Research Findings: Recent evidence suggests that children benefit from pre-K programs in terms of both academic and social skills and that this growth is predicted by the quality of the interactions teachers have with students. Prior cluster analysis revealed 5 distinct quality profiles of teacher–child interactions in pre-kindergarten based on classroom observations of 692 teachers. In the present study, the links between these 5 quality profiles of teacher–child interactions and pre-kindergarten children's (n = 2,028) academic growth and social competence were examined using multilevel modeling techniques. Results indicate that students in the profile with the highest levels of concept development showed the greatest gains for both PPVT Receptive Vocabulary and WJ-III Applied Problems. The profile with the highest levels of emotional support dimensions had children who were rated highest in social competence the next year. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that teacher–child interactions targeting preschoolers' analysis and inference combined with moderate levels of emotional and organizational supports could play a role in fostering students' achievement gains during pre-kindergarten.