Assessing Early Childhood Teachers' Use of Child Progress Monitoring to Individualize Teaching Practices

ATTACHMENT B

EDIT RECRUITMENT SCRIPT

Pretest: Assessing Early Childhood Teachers’ Use of Child Progress Monitoring to Individualize Teaching Practices project

RECRUITMENT SCRIPT

Goals of the call:

1. Introduce yourself

2. Desribe purpose of the study

3. Describe what the pretest will entail

4. Identify eligible classrooms and confirm that lead teacher and students are English-speaking.

5. Identify/Explain Setting Point Person (SPP) role

6. Describe next steps

7. Record class lists for classroom

8. Schedule visit date

Introduction

Hello, my name is _____________. I am calling from Mathematica Policy Research in regards to a project for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

1. May I please speak with [PROGRAM DIRECTOR]?

2. SPP: I spoke with [GATEKEEPER] about your setting participating in this study, and s/he recommended you to be the point of contact.

I am contacting you about potentially helping us with an important study, called the EDIT project. This study is about early childhood teachers use of ongoing child assessment data to inform and modify classroom instruction. You should have received a letter with information about the study. Did you receive the letter?

HAVE CENTER RECRUITMENT ADVANCE LETTER (Appendix A) AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION IF PERSON IS NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE STUDY

I would like to review the purpose of the study and discuss your potential participation. The conversation should take about 10 minutes.

If they say it is NOT a good time: I understand you are busy. What is the best time to contact you to discuss the study? Write down date and time to contact them and get their address if they would like us to send out the advance letter again. Thank them for their time. Put the appointment in your calendar.

Study Purpose

The purpose of the project is to create a research tool to understand how teachers assess the progress of children in their classrooms and then use the data from assessments to inform instruction. Your response to our questions and the assessment and planning information that you share with us will be kept private. We will summarize what we learned from all the teachers in the study about how teachers use assessment information and will not include anyone’s name. We will use what we learn to improve the research tool. When the research tool is finished we hope that this understanding could help lead to recommendations that could improve early childhood teaching in the future.

Section A: Determining eligibility

I have a few questions to ask you to determine eligibility to participate.

A1. In order to determine if your setting is eligible to participate in this study, can you please tell me how many classrooms you have that serve children between the ages of 3 and 5 and use standard tasks to monitor child progress (for example, general outcomes measures such as the IGDIs [individual growth and development indicators] or m-CLASS CIRCLE)?

RECORD # OF PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS THAT USE GOM _____

IF NOT ELIGIBLE (HAS 0 PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS USING GOM): I’m sorry but based on this information, your setting is not eligible to participate in this study; but thank you very much for talking with us. Hopefully Mathematica will get the opportunity to work with you again in the future. (END CALL)

IF CLASSROOMS WITH GOM, CONTINUE TO A2.

A2. How many of those classrooms also use an ongoing assessment system linked to a curriculum (for example, Teaching Strategies GOLD or Work Sampling System)?

RECORD # OF PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS THAT USE CURRICULUM-EMBEDDED ONGOING ASSESSMENT _____

IF NOT ELIGIBLE (HAS 0 PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS WITH ONGOING ASSESSENTS):

I’m sorry but based on this information, your setting is not eligible to participate in this study; but thank you very much for talking with us. Hopefully Mathematica will get the opportunity to work with you again in the future. (END CALL)

IF ELIGIBLE:

A2. Can you tell me what languages are spoken in these classrooms?

RECORD LANGUAGES ____________________________________

A2a. IF LANGUAGES DO NOT INCLUDE ENGLISH: I’m sorry but based on this information, your setting is not eligible to participate in this study; but thank you very much for talking with us. Hopefully Mathematica will get the opportunity to work with you again in the future. (END CALL)

Thank you. I’d like to tell you a little bit more about the project activities. The project has developed a multi-method measure consisting of three parts: first, a document review, second, video-based observations, and third, a one-hour teacher interview. We would like to pretest the research tool with one classroom at your center. The pretest would involve two of our trained assessors conducting a one-day visit to your center. The classroom teacher would be asked to collect some information prior to the visit.

In the two to three weeks before the one-day visit, we ask that teacher:

• Collect consent forms (that we will provide) from all parents in the classroom

• Gather documents in the form of lesson plans and assessment information (such as anecdotal records or a portfolio) for two children. We will provide information to help the teacher to select children.

• Video-record a combination of assessments and small-group instruction that includes these two children using equipment that we will provide

During the one-day visit, the assessors will:

• Review the documents gathered by the teacher to see how teachers are using ongoing assessment data to inform instruction

• Review the video-recorded observations to see how teachers administer assessments and deliver instruction

• And conduct a one-hour teacher interview with the lead teacher in the room to ask for additional explanations about the documents and video as well as the teacher’s assessments, planning, and teaching strategies.

After the visit, the teacher will be asked to participate in a 20-minute phone call to debrief on the experience of being part of this research study.

The information we collect is private and will only be used for research and educational purposes. None of the results from the observations will be associated with your program, center, or individual classrooms. No names or any identifying information will be released.

As a token of our appreciation, the participating teacher will receive a $75 gift card, and we will also give an additional $50 gift card to purchase materials for your setting as a way of thanking you for your time.

Selecting a Setting Point Person (SPP)

To make it easier for us to coordinate with you throughout the study and for you to stay informed, we suggest you designate a setting point person (SPP) for your program (this person can be you if you want). The SPP will help us with the following:

• Schedule dates for the one-day visit

• Help follow-up with teachers when they are collecting consent forms

• Provide us with rosters of the children for the eligible classroom

• Help distribute materials for teachers to use to prepare for the visit

A3. Who would you like this person to be? Can I please confirm your contact info?

Name:

Title:

Phone Number:

Address:

Email:

[CONFIRM IF ALREADY KNOWN PROBE IF UNKNOWN]

A4. What are your hours of operation? Monday through Friday?

A5. Next Steps

• [IF SPP DIFFERENT] I will contact [NAME OF THE SPP] to introduce myself and explain the study and schedule our observation. A few days before our scheduled visit, I will contact [YOU / NAME OF THE SPP] to confirm the visit.

• [IF SPP NOT DIFFERENT CONTINUE TO SECTION B OR SCHEDULE NEXT CALL]

Section B:

I have a few questions I would like to ask you.

Determining Eligible Classrooms

You have [NUMBER] preschool classrooms that have English-speaking lead teachers and children and are using ongoing assessments, correct?

I would like to visit one of those classrooms. IF MORE THAN ONE ELIGIBLE CLASSROOM: You can select the one that we will visit. For this classroom:

B1. What is this classroom’s name?

B2. What is the total number of children in this classroom?

B7. Is this a full day or part day program? What are the hours of operation?

B8. When do the children usually have naptime (if full-day) or leave (if part-day)?

B9. Great, can you tell me how many teachers work in this classroom and their names? Is one teacher considered the lead teacher? If so, who is the lead teacher?

B10. What time do(es) the lead teacher arrive?

Do you have any questions about anything we have talked about so far?

SPP Role and Next Steps:

As a reminder, each participating lead teacher will receive a $75 gift card and we will give your center an additional $50 gift card as a token of our appreciation for your help.

We could use your help distributing materials at your center, answering questions about the study (or sharing questions with our staff), and scheduling our visit(s).

Thank you for your time and willingness to help us with this important study.

I will be mailing you a welcome packet for the participating classroom. The welcome packet includes instructions and consent forms for all the teachers in the room (we need permission to video record from everyone though we only will interview the lead teacher), as well as consent forms for teachers to give to parents. If we do not receive consent from a child, we will remind the participating teacher to be sure not to include that child in study activities. I will include instructions for handing out the welcome packet to the classroom. Please have teachers return the completed teacher and parent consent forms in the included shipping materials.

Please contact me at [CONTACT INFO] if you have any questions. Thank you once again!

Section C: For a future call

Hello, my name is _____________. I am calling from Mathematica Policy Research in regards to the EDIT project. May I please speak with [SPP]?

When we previously spoke, your center identified [CLASSROOM NAME] as the classroom participating in the EDIT project. I am calling to schedule our visit to your center.

[DISCUSS CONSENT PROCESS IF THERE ARE OUTSTANDING CONSENT FORMS]

C1. I would like to confirm that your hours of operation are [SEE B7 FOR TIME]?

C2. We would like to come between __________. Later that day, we would like to meet with the teacher for an hour perhaps during naptime or after the children have left for the day. When would be the best day(s) to visit the classroom? SET VISIT DATE AND TIME (WE WANT TO BE THERE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY TO SPEAK WITH THE SPP).

C3. A member of our study team will need to schedule a call with the lead teacher(s) once s/he receives our materials to help prepare for the site visit. I may ask you to help schedule this call at that time.

Thank you for your time and willingness to help us with this important study.

Please contact me at [CONTACT INFO] if you have any questions. Thank you once again!