Effective Early Childhood Professional Development: Improving Teacher Practice and Child Outcomes

Carollee Howes, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Improving Child Care Quality, Department of Education, and a professor of the Applied Developmental Psychology doctorate program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Howes is an internationally recognized developmental psychologist focusing on children's social and emotional development. She has served as a principal investigator on a number of seminal studies in early child care and preschool education, including the National Child Care Staffing Study; the Family and Relative Care Study; the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes Study; and the National Study of Child Care in Low Income Families. Dr. Howes has been active in public policy for children and families in California as well as across the United States. Her research focuses on children's experiences in child care, their concurrent and long-term outcomes from child care experiences, and child care quality and efforts to improve child care quality. Dr. Howes is the editor of Teaching 4- to 8-Year-Olds: Literacy, Math, Multiculturalism, and Classroom Community (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2003) and the coeditor of The Promise of Pre-K (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2009) and Foundations for Teaching Excellence: Connecting Early Childhood Quality Rating, Professional Development, and Competency Systems in States (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2011). Robert C. Pianta, Ph.D., is Dean of the Curry School of Education, Director of the Center for Advanced Study in Teaching and Learning and Novartis U.S. Foundation Professor of Education at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. A former special education teacher, Dr. Pianta is a developmental, school, and clinical child psychologist whose work focuses on assessment and improvement of teacher-student interactions and their role in fostering children's learning and development. Dr. Pianta is a principal investigator on several major grants including the National Center for Research in Early Childhood Education and the Virginia Education Sciences Training Program, and he has worked closely with the Gates Foundation-funded Measure of Effective Teaching project. He is the author of more than 250 journal articles, chapters, and books in the areas of early childhood education, teacher performance assessment, professional development, and teacher-child relationships, and he consults regularly with federal agencies, foundations and universities. Bridget K. Hamre, Ph.D., is Research Associate Professor in the Curry School of Education and Associate Director of University of Virginiaa (TM)s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). Dr. Hamrea (TM)s areas of expertise include student-teacher relationships and classroom processes that promote positive academic and social development for young children, and she has authored numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts on these topics. This work documents the ways in which early teacher-child relationships are predictive of later academic and social development and the ways in which exposure to high-quality classroom social and instructional interactions may help close the achievement gap for students at risk of school failure. Dr. Hamre leads efforts to use the CLASS(TM) tool as an assessment, accountability, and professional development tool in early childhood and other educational settings. Most recently, she was engaged in the development and testing of interventions designed to improve the quality of teachersa (TM) interactions with students, including MyTeachingPartner and a 14-week course developed for early childhood teachers. Dr. Hamre received her bachelora (TM)s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her mastera (TM)s degree and doctorate in clinical and school psychology from the University of Virginia. As Director of the Office for Policy and Communications of SRCD, Dr. Zaslow works to bring research on children's development to policy makers and the broader public and to bring information about policy developments to the SRCD membership. She also oversees the SRCD Policy Fellowship program. As Senior Scholar at Child Trends, Dr. Zaslow's research focuses on early childhood development and takes an ecological approach, considering the role of multiple contexts including the family, early care and education (ECE) settings, and programs and policies for families with young children. Margaret Burchinal, Ph.D., Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, FPG Child Development Institute, CB 8185, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599. Dr. Burchinal is a senior scientist at the FPG Child Development Institute. She has served as the primary statistician for many child care studies, including the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development study of early child care and youth development; the Abecedarian Project; the National Center for Early Development and Learning 11-state prekindergarten evaluation; and the Cost, Quality, & Outcomes Study. Jason T. Downer, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning in Charlottesville. He is a clinical-community psychologist whose work focuses on the identification and understanding of contextual and relational contributors to young at-risk children's early achievement and social competence. Specifically, Dr. Downer is interested in the role of fathers in children's early learning, as well as the development of observational methods to capture valid, reliable estimates of teacher-child interactions in prekindergarten through elementary classrooms. Dr. Downer also has a keen interest in translating research-to-practice through school-based, classroom-focused interventions. Laura M. Justice, Ph.D., EHE Distinguished Professor, Teaching and Learning Administration, Executive Director of the Schoenbaum Family Center and the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, The Ohio State University, 175 E 7th Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43201 Dr. Justice's research primarily focuses on young children who exhibit developmental vulnerabilities in language and literacy acquisition. Much of her research considers the effects of teacher- or parent-implemented interventions on children's learning, including the effective use of storybooks. She is a recipient of the Annie Glenn Leadership Award in Speech-Language Pathology, the Editor's Award (from the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology), the Early Career Publication Award (from the Division of Research, Council for Exceptional Children), the Erskine Fellowship (from the University of Canterbury), and the Fulbright Scholar Award. Dr. Justice has also received the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (from President G.W. Bush). Dr. Susan Landry, a nationally recognized expert in early childhood education, is the founder and director of the Childrena (TM)s Learning Institute. Dr. Landrya (TM)s research into environmental factors that promote early cognitive growth and development led to her development of the framework for the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE), which led to the implementation of the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM) (now known as Texas School Ready!) in prekindergarten classrooms across Texas. C. Cybele Raver, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Applied Psychology, The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York University, Kimball Hall, 246 Greene Street, Room 403W, New York, New York 10003. Dr. Raver directs New York University's Institute of Human Development and Social Change. Her research focuses on self-regulation and school readiness among young children facing economic hardship, and she examines the mechanisms that support children's positive outcomes in the policy contexts of welfare reform and early educational intervention.