Teacher qualifications, classroom practices, family characteristics, and preschool experience: Complex effects on first graders' vocabulary and early reading outcomes

Abstract

Using an ecological model, this study explored the effects of distal and proximal sources of influence on students' learning. We first examined three markers of teacher qualification — elementary education credential, years of education, and years of experience — on observed classroom practices across three dimensions — warmth/responsivity, control/discipline, and time spent on academic activities — as they related to children's vocabulary and early reading skills. We then examined the impact of this core system embedded in a larger system that included children's vocabulary and word recognition skills prior to school entry, their home and preschool learning environments, and family SES. Results, using structural equation modeling, revealed that students whose teachers were more warm and responsive and who spent more time in academic activities demonstrated stronger vocabulary and decoding skills at the end of first grade. Teachers with more years of education interacted with students more responsively but, surprisingly, their students had weaker early reading skills. Overall, students' language and letter–word recognition scores when they were 54 months of age, their home learning environment and family SES accounted for most of the variability in vocabulary and early reading scores at the end of first grade. Implications of the multiple and concurrent sources of influence on students' language and literacy development are discussed.

Introduction

Although many factors contribute to children's success in school, their teachers' capacity to teach effectively is among the most important (Darling-Hammond, 2000, Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002, Nye et al., 2004). Recent policies have identified teacher qualifications as an important component leading to stronger student achievement. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, see DOE, 2004a, DOE, 2004b), for example, calls for “highly qualified teachers in every classroom.” However, the research regarding the relation between teacher qualifications and child outcomes, historically, has been somewhat equivocal and any effects have been small (Coleman et al., 1966, Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002, DOE, 2002, Kanstoroom & Finn, 1999, NICHD-ECCRN, 2002a, NICHD-ECCRN, 2002b). Moreover, many studies relate teacher qualifications directly to children's outcomes and treat classroom practice like a black box. As Cohen, Raudenbush, and Ball (2003) note, providing resources, such as highly qualified teachers, is important but will not necessarily assure effective use of these resources. Rather, they propose that research give priority “to [investigating] coherent systems of instruction and… [examining] how resources are used within them” (p. 138). However, there are multiple sources of influence on children's achievement that occur outside the classroom and before children enter school. The purpose of this study is to examine the relation of teachers' qualifications to children's first-grade achievement within a larger system, including both proximal (e.g., teacher and child variables) as well as distal (e.g., SES, preschool) sources of influence on children's vocabulary and early reading skills. Hence, we examine the relation of teacher qualifications to their practice in the classroom and how, in turn, teachers' classroom practices affect children's achievement as a core system of instruction. This core system is embedded in a larger system comprised of students' language and letter–word recognition skills prior to entering first grade, their home and preschool learning environments, and their families' socioeconomic status (SES).