Effect of Early Childhood Teacher Characteristics on Classroom Practice, Quality, and Child Abilities

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is funding and supporting a longitudinal study of Early Child Care. Beginning in 1991, data was collected from ten sites across the United States and included 1,364 families with a newborn child. This study used the NICHD Early Child Care data set to investigate characteristics of teachers that provide childcare in a daycare-like setting or childcare centers. Specifically, the relationship between early childhood teacher endorsement of developmentally appropriate belief systems and teacher education in early childhood were examined to determine their potential influence on the teachers' developmentally appropriate classroom practices, global rating of classroom quality, and child cognitive abilities. These relationships were examined at two time periods- at child age 36 months and child age 54 months. The results indicated that many of these relationships were significant. Interestingly, many of the significant findings were present only at child age 54 months