This study examined development of academic, language, and social skills among 4-year-olds in publicly supported prekindergarten (pre-K) programs in relation to 3 methods of measuring pre-K quality, which are as follows: (a) adherence to 9 standards of quality related to program infrastructure and design, (b) observations of the overall quality of classroom environments, and (c) observations of teachers' emotional and instructional interactions with children in classrooms. Participants were 2,439 children enrolled in 671 pre-K classrooms in 11 states. Adjusting for prior skill levels, child and family characteristics, program characteristics, and state, teachers' instructional interactions predicted academic and language skills and teachers' emotional interactions predicted teacher-reported social skills. Findings suggest that policies, program development, and professional development efforts that improve teacher-child interactions can facilitate children's school readiness.

As the workforce in state-funded pre-kindergarten programs continues to grow in the United States, the promise of these and other early education opportunities (e.g., Head Start) depends in large part on in-service professional development and training in key instructional and interaction skills. In this paper, we describe effects of MyTeachingPartner (MTP), a web-based system of professional development resources, that include video exemplars and web-mediated consultation on specific dimensions of interactions with children for 113 teachers in a state-funded pre-k program. Teachers assigned to receive on-line consultation and feedback targeted to their interactions showed significantly greater increases in independent ratings of the quality of interactions than did those only receiving access to a website with video clips. The positive effects of consultation were particularly evident in classrooms with higher proportions of children who experienced economic risks. Implications of these findings for models of professional development and widespread needs for teacher access and support are discussed in relation to the effectiveness of early education. KeywordsEarly childhood education; In-service training; Professional development; Consultation; At-scale implementation There is currently widespread agreement that the training and professional development of the early education workforce is a key component for ensuring that early childhood education programs make good on the hopes of policymakers, parents, and educators for improving children's success in school (Bogard & Takanishi, 2005; Zaslow & MartinezBeck, 2005). Enrollment of three-and four-year-olds in early education programs is growing annually (Barnett, Hustedt, Hawkinson, & Robin, 2006; West, Denton, & GerminoHausken, 2000), with estimates indicating that 200,000 teachers will be needed to staff © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Robert C. Pianta, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, 350 Old Ivy Way, Suite 100, Charlottesville, VA 22903, rcp4p@virginia.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript universal enrollment programs by 2020 (Clifford & Maxwell, 2002). Consequently, identifying effective, relevant, and scalable approaches to training the early education workforce is of paramount importance. Furthermore, there is credible evidence that teachers' effective implementation of instruction that emphasizes the qual...

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