Understanding Preschool Teachers’ Emotional Support as a Function of Center Climate

Katherine M Zinsser,Timothy W Curby

doi:10.1177/2158244014560728

Abstract

There is great emphasis recently on improving the quality of early childhood education in the United States. Within quality rating improvement systems, classroom quality is often reported at the center or program levels. Yet little is known about teaching quality at the center level or the influence of center characteristics on teaching quality. Specifically, this study examines the extent to which the quality of emotional support provided by the teacher is associated with characteristics of the center (e.g., prior turnover rates) and center director (e.g., education, management practices). Findings from Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) 2009 data indicated that emotional support dimensions were differentially predicted by characteristics of the center and the director, including prior teacher turnover rate and director job satisfaction. However, highly regulated indicators of center quality (e.g., student:teacher ratio) did not substantially explain emotional support.

Highlights

At federal, state, and local levels, there has been a massive push to increase the quality of early childhood education
The Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge and the new Head Start performance standards have increased the pressure for states and programs to use appropriate assessments of classroom quality (National Research Council of the National Academies, 2008)
The degree to which there was center-level variance in each of the emotional support dimensions was calculated by running unconditional models, which partition the variance in each outcome into classroom-level and center-level components

Summary

Introduction

State, and local levels, there has been a massive push to increase the quality of early childhood education. The Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge and the new Head Start performance standards have increased the pressure for states and programs to use appropriate assessments of classroom quality (National Research Council of the National Academies, 2008). This is a well-founded focus given that an abundance of literature has established a link between classroom quality and children’s outcomes (e.g., Burchinal, Vandergrift, Pianta, & Mashburn, 2009; Curby et al, 2009; Mashburn et al, 2008; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD] Early Child Care Research Network, 2003; Peisner-Feinberg et al, 2001). Children in classrooms with more supportive teachers display more adaptive learning behaviors and better academic outcomes (Graziano, Reavis, Keane, & Calkins, 2007; Hamre & Pianta, 2005; Rimm-Kaufman, Curby, Grimm, Nathanson, & Brock, 2009), and lower rates of problem behaviors, negative affect, and aggression (Howes et al, 2008; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003; Zinsser, Bailey, Curby, Denham & Bassett, 2013)

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