Laura Kohn on the continuum of quality preK-elementary teaching

Robert Pianta and his colleagues are making a critical contribution to our collective understanding of what quality teaching looks like in action ("Neither Art nor Accident: New research helps define and develop quality preK and elementary teaching," HEL, January/February 2008). The power of their work comes from the fact that they have not just described quality teaching in words, but have recorded video samples of stellar teaching and tested the correlations between their ratings and student outcomes. This is a rich resource. In addition to coaching practicing teachers, there are obvious applications for assisting preservice teachers and principals in training.

I appreciate that the CLASS instrument puts appropriately equal weight on instructional practice, emotional climate, and classroom operations. We are all fearful that the whole child is being lost in the focus on reading and math outcomes. Yes, we want every child to be a proficient reader and mathematician, but we also want to foster their creativity, problem-solving skills, ability to work with others, empathy, confidence, and sense of greater purpose. CLASS can help teachers integrate these goals.

Yet it is worrisome that observers using CLASS see the most weakness in American classrooms in the instructional domain. What’s going on? Or what’s not going on? Those of us who have been ardent supporters of the standards-based reform movement (especially because of its potential to close race-based achievement gaps) have to ask ourselves: How is it, after 15-plus years of this effort, that our schools are not providing rigorous, challenging instruction at scale?

A final reflection: At the New School Foundation’s partner school, we find that the inclusion of prekindergarten in the school’s grade span helps all of the teachers remember the value of active, child-directed learning. And at the same time, our preK teachers get feedback from the kindergarten and first grade teachers about foundational skills students can master so that they are on track to hit critical benchmarks in second and third grades. CLASS reinforces the value of this continuum of teaching and instruction for students. It also offers practical tools for schools like ours to examine its teaching practices, support the induction of new teachers, and adjust practices over time.

Laura Kohn is the executive director of the New School Foundation in Seattle, which creates model public schools through long-term philanthropic partnerships.