Early Education & Development Individual Factors Associated With ...

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN HEAD START REDI 417
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paredness, and problem solving. The slope for language richness also indicated
significant linear growth across the year (β = .12, p < .001), with observed scores
increasing from M Sep = 2.78 to M Apr = 3.49. This indicates that coaches perceived
an increase in teachers’ use of modeling, recasting, rich and varied vocabulary,
elaboration, and decontextualized language to support children’s emerging language
and literacy skills. Coach ratings of social–emotional support in the classroom
also revealed significant linear growth (â = .14, p < .001), increasing from an
average of M Sep = 2.80 to M Apr = 3.63 over the 8-month period. Coaches noted positive
change in teachers’ use of feeling words in the classroom, encouragement in
self-regulation of emotions, validation of children’s feelings, and modeling. Significant
linear growth was also evident in coaches’ ratings of teachers’ sensitivity–responsiveness
(β = .08, p < .001). The overall growth pattern showed an increase
of M Sep = 3.42 to M Apr = 3.93, indicating that coaches noted increments in
teachers’ engagement and warmth and responsiveness in interactions with children.
Overall, these linear growth patterns suggest improvement from “sometimes”
using the particular teaching strategies (3 = sometimes) to more routine use
of the practices.
Predicting Variations in Training Process and Training
Content Outcomes
Next we tested a series of models in which we added conceptually grouped sets of
variables as predictors of variations in growth patterns. Tests of variance components
revealed consistent but relatively modest variance around teacher-level
growth terms (range = 2%–4%). With growth specified in models as a random effect,
we tested whether a given set of predictors (e.g., professional characteristics,
comprising education, training, and experience) accounted for variation in the typical
growth pattern. The conceptually grouped sets of predictors were the measures
of teacher characteristics (professional background, personal resources, and perceptions
of work environment) and the measures of the training process (perceptions
of intervention and engagement in consultation). Results indicated only two
statistically significant predictors of variations in growth patterns out of a total of
56 tests (14 predictors for each of the 4 outcomes), which is no more than one
would expect by chance. This indicated that the measures of teacher characteristics
and training process were not accounting for variations in growth across the eight
monthly ratings.
Given these null results for the prediction of variations in growth parameters,
we proceeded to focus on the fixed effects of the predictors on the teacher-level intercept
term. Tests of variance components revealed substantial variance around
intercepts at the teacher level (range = 14%–35%, median = 21%) consistent
across models. We centered the time variable at the eighth and final monthly rating
so that the intercept represented end-of-year implementation quality. We present