Measures of classroom quality in prekindergarten and children’s development of academic, language and social skills”. Child Development 79

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, programcharacteristics, 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. Over the past four decades, the federal government and most states invested in providing public pre-school programs for 3- and 4-year-old children. This trend began in 1965 with the establishment of Head Start, and by 2004 – 2005, 38 states offered one ormore state-funded programs that served approximatel