National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education Teacher Professional Development Study (2007-2011) (ICPSR 34848)

Version Date: Apr 12, 2016 View help for published

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Robert Pianta, University of Virginia; Margaret Burchinal, University of North Carolina

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34848.v2

Version V2

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NCRECE Teacher Professional Development Study

The Professional Development Study (PDS) is a randomized controlled evaluation of two forms of professional development delivered to over 490 early childhood education teachers: (1) coursework on effective instructional interactions (as defined by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System [CLASS], an observational measure with established links to child outcomes) and (2) video-based consultation support through MyTeachingPartner (MTP). These professional development supports aim to improve teachers' implementation of language/literacy activities and interactions with children, as well as promote gains in children's social and academic development.

The questionnaires and measures used to gather the study data were initially compiled into 76 Raw-level files. The Raw-level data were in turn used by the research team at NCRECE to create 10 comprehensive Analysis-level files in order to avoid any inaccuracies that might result from incorrectly merging the Raw files. The Analysis-level files are organized by participant and phase of study. Whenever possible, Analysis files should be utilized instead of merging individual Raw files.

Additional information about this study can be found at the NCRECE web site.

Pianta, Robert, and Burchinal, Margaret. National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education Teacher Professional Development Study (2007-2011). Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-04-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34848.v2

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United States Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences (R305A060021)

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Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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2007 -- 2011
2007 -- 2008 (Cohort 1: Phase 1), 2008 -- 2009 (Cohort 1: Phase 2), 2009 -- 2010 (Cohort 1: Phase 3), 2008 -- 2009 (Cohort 2: Phase 1), 2009 -- 2010 (Cohort 2: Phase 2), 2010 -- 2011 (Cohort 2: Phase 3)
  1. ICPSR staff edited some value labels to correct errors that were present in the original files.

  2. Variable-level data documentation for individual Raw Data files are not being made publicly available due to proprietary copyright restrictions for several of the measures. Variable-level documentation for three of the individual Analysis Data files - Phase I Course-Teacher Data, Phase II Consultancy-Teacher Data, and Phase III Post-Intervention Teacher Data - are not being made available for the same reason. Variables specifically connected with the CLASS, PPVT-III, TOPEL, and Woodcock-Johnson measures across 28 of the data files have also had their variable labels truncated or masked for this reason as as well. Secondary users can obtain these measures from their original proprietors, or can send inquiries to ICPSR user support or the research team at NCRECE.

  3. ICPSR staff has changed the original file names provided by the researchers to correspond to the archive's standard format structure. A data crosswalk between the original and final file names has been provided in the User Guide for secondary users.

  4. ICPSR staff has added some additional data and documentation enhancements to the Analysis-level files. These include: SAS Special Missing Code Labels in all data packages, codebooks that include the survey instrument question text for each variable where available, and the NCRECE-provided variable-level codebooks for files that do not have copyright restrictions.

  5. In order to produce the full data suite for each of the 86 files, some string variables had their widths reduced to 244 characters so that Stata and R files could be produced.

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The Professional Development Study is a randomized controlled evaluation of two forms of treatment to be delivered to teachers, (1) coursework and (2) consultation support, and their effects on observed effectiveness of implementation and interactions, and on gains in child outcomes in language and literacy.

Study participants consisted of two cohorts separated by a year. The first and second cohorts were spread across ten locations in eight different states, and consisted of classrooms including state and local preschool programs.

The first course was offered to the first cohort of teachers in Spring 2008. Teachers learned about the development of language and literacy, how interactions in early education settings influence language development and learning, and how high quality implementation of language and literacy curricula and activities leads to skill growth. Following random assignment to the coursework intervention, enrolled teachers were then eligible for randomization into the consultancy, which took place during the following school year. The consultancy provided observationally-based, non-evaluative, practice-focused support and feedback for teachers through one-on-one, web-mediated remote consultation. Teachers who were enrolled during the consultancy phase were then invited to participate in one year of additional follow-up. The post-intervention follow-up involved data collection only, and teachers were not exposed to treatment during this phase of the study. All teachers and children were assessed using the same measures (some intervention teachers were asked additional questions pertaining to the intervention). The NCRECE team utilized the services of local data collectors, instructors and consultants to assist in the data collection process.

Data files were compiled into two general categories, Raw and Analysis-level data. All data files were originally compiled by questionnaire or measure, comprising the 76 Raw data files. The 10 Analysis-level files were created to avoid inaccuracies resulting from incorrectly merging the raw files discussed above. Whenever possible, analysis-level files should be utilized instead of merging individual raw files together.

The recruitment process targeted large community preschool and Head Start programs across the country with enrollment organized into two cohorts of sites. Teacher recruitment for the study involved independent random assignment to the treatment or control group in each of the treatment phases, with replacement for teachers who left before the Coaching phase (II). Participating teachers were given child recruitment packets at the beginning of the Coaching and Post-Intervention phases of the study (II and III). Teachers were asked to distribute packets to parents of all children in their classroom (if they taught a.m. and p.m. sessions, they were asked to only send to the a.m. families.) Data Collectors retrieved the returned packets from the teacher on the morning of the school/center visit to randomly select and assess 4 children.

Ultimately, teachers were selected to participate in one of four possible conditions: A) Course/Consultancy; B) Course/No Consultancy; C) No Course/Consultancy; and D) No Course/No Consultancy. Overall, 427 teachers participated in Phase 1 and 401 teachers participated in Phase 2.

Longitudinal: Cohort / Event-based

Early childhood teachers and their students.

Individual

The following scales are included in the study data:

  • Beliefs About Intentional Teaching

  • Beliefs About the Importance of Language and Literacy Skills

  • Teacher Stress Inventory

  • State of Anxiety and Anger Expression Inventories

  • NEO Five-Factor Personality Assessment (extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness)

  • School Climate

  • Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale

  • Student-Teacher Relationship Scale

  • Academic Rating Scale

  • Preschool Learning Behavior Scale

  • The Test of Preschool Early Literacy

The following scales are included in the study data but are not publicly available. Variables related to these scales have been masked or truncated due to copyright restrictions. Users should inquire with the original proprietors of these measurement tools for further access:

  • Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS)

  • Peabody Preschool Vocabulary Test-III

  • Woodcock-Johnson-III

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2016-01-18

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Pianta, Robert, and Margaret Burchinal. National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education Teacher Professional Development Study (2007-2011). ICPSR34848-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-04-12. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34848.v2

2016-04-12 Two location variables were de-identified in the Master Enrollment Data File (DS 42). The data and codebook for this file were replaced.

2016-01-18 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Performed consistency checks.
  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Standardized missing values.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

CFDA logo

This study is maintained and distributed by the Child and Family Data Archive (CFData). CFData hosts datasets about young children, their families and communities, and the programs that serve them. CFData is supported by Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), an office of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.