Understanding COVID-19-Era Enrollment Drops among Early-Grade Public School Students News The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly disrupted schooling nationwide, raising serious concerns about the impact of the pandemic on children’s learning. But, as Batten’s Daphna Bassok and co-author Anna Shapiro write in Brooking’s “Brown Center Chalkboard” blog, relatively less has been written about the experiences of the “missing children”—those who have not enrolled in public school at all.
UVA Honors Its Leading Researchers at Boar's Head Banquet News The inaugural Research Achievement Awards featured University leaders handing out 13 honors to UVA’s most outstanding researchers, including Batten's Daphna Bassok and Brian Williams.
With a Kindergarten Teacher’s Perspective, Professor Pushes Early Childhood Education News Daphna Bassok first became acutely aware of the importance of early childhood education when she taught in a kindergarten classroom. The difference in readiness between the children who came into her classroom with preschool experience and those without was striking, she said.
Measuring the Quality of Teacher-Child Interactions at Scale: The Implications of Using Local Practitioners to Conduct Classroom Observations Research
Batten Faculty Dominate the University's New Public Service Awards Program News UVA’s Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost created a new awards program to commend faculty for the contributions their public service makes to student learning, the advancement of scholarship and creative activity, and the University’s own public mission.
Are Parents’ Ratings and Satisfaction with Preschools related to Program Features? Research This study examines whether parents’ overall satisfaction with their child’s early childhood education (ECE) program is correlated with a broad set of program characteristics, including (a) observational assessments of teacher-child interactions; (b) structural features of the program, such as teacher education and class size; (c) practical and convenience factors (e.g., hours, cost); and (d) a measure of average classroom learning gains. It then describes associations between parents’ evaluation of specific program characteristics and externally collected measures of those features.
Within-and Between-Sector Quality Differences in Early Childhood Education and Care Research This study leverages nationally representative data (N ≈ 6,000) to examine the magnitude of quality differences between (a) formal and informal early childhood education and care providers; (b) Head Start, prekindergarten, and other center-based care; and (c) programs serving toddlers and those serving preschoolers. It then documents differences in children’s reading and math skills at age 5 between those who had enrolled in formal and informal settings.
The Effects of Universal State Pre-Kindergarten on the Child Care Sector: The Case of Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten Program Research Over the past two decades states have drastically increased their investments in pre-kindergarten programs. One major question about state investments in early childhood education programs is to what extent these initiatives create new child care options rather than crowd-out existing private child care options.