Abstract
The effects of high-quality pre-kindergarten programs are well documented, including improvements in cognitive, literacy, math, and social-emotional skills. Evidence shows that low-income and minority students tend to benefit most from these programs, potentially helping to reduce academic performance disparities. A commonly employed intervention to improve pre-k classroom quality is coaching; however, there is little consensus regarding what coaching should “look like” in early childhood education and a great deal of variability in coaching quality. This paper describes a community-university partnership to develop a coaching model for a publicly funded prekindergarten program, using a participatory research approach and seeking input from stakeholders at multiple levels to address the particular needs of the school district. This paper describes the origin of the partnership, the development and implementation of the coaching model, and the benefits of using this type of collaborative approach to pre-k coaching. Taking a collaborative approach to the development and implementation of a pre-k coaching model resulted in an intervention that met program needs, achieved buy-in from multiple levels of administrators and staff, and helped build the school district’s capacity to use data to guide decision-making. Challenges encountered throughout the project, how those challenges were addressed, and steps taken to ensure the sustainability of the coaching model are also discussed.
Highlights
Introduction & BackgroundConsiderable research documents the effects of high-quality pre-kindergarten programs on early learning and cognitive development, including language, literacy, reading and math skills (e.g., Magnuson et al, 2004; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013; Xiang & Schweinhart, 2002; Yoshikawa et al, 2013)
The sections that follow describe a partnership between the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) Community Psychology Research Lab (CPRL) and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ (CMS) Bright Beginnings (BB) pre-k program to improve curriculum implementation and student outcomes
Enhanced Coaching Development Team (ECDT) meetings were held at times when most school district stakeholders were available; teachers were engaged with end-of-year standardized testing and on summer break during this time, which likely resulted in their lack of participation
Summary
Considerable research documents the effects of high-quality pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs on early learning and cognitive development, including language, literacy, reading and math skills (e.g., Magnuson et al, 2004; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013; Xiang & Schweinhart, 2002; Yoshikawa et al, 2013). The authors noted that these coaching elements should be adapted to each educator’s skills and specific context (Elek & Page, 2019) These findings are consistent with other studies, which identify classroom visits, teacher reflection, action planning, setting clear expectations for teachers, and individualized support as key coaching practices (Conners-Burrow et al, 2017). The sections that follow describe a partnership between the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) Community Psychology Research Lab (CPRL) and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ (CMS) Bright Beginnings (BB) pre-k program to improve curriculum implementation and student outcomes As part of this effort, the CPRL employed a participatory approach to develop a coaching model focused on the specific strengths and needs of teachers and coaches in BB
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