Page Not Found
Page not found. Your pixels are in another canvas.
Sitemap
A list of all the posts and pages found on the site. For you robots out there is an XML version available for digesting as well.
Pages
Page not in menu
This is a page not in th emain menu
Posts
Covid-19 & Early Childhood Education: Looking to the Past to Understand the Present
Published:
Covid-19 presents a major structural disruption to existing education practices. With this disruption, educational stakeholders have had to reimagine what schooling can or should look like in the midst of a global crisis. Thus, we stand in a time and space where the possibility of shifting entrenched ways of learning that researchers (e.g. Shepard, Penuel, Pellegrino, 2018) have suggested may not be the best way of learning is real. When evaluating the constraints to taking advantage of the potential for change in this current moment, it is fruitful to look to the past to understand how previous national/global crises have launched changes to the education of young children.
publications
Where has all the time gone? Describing time use in full- vs. half-day pre-Kindergarten
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2024
The current study examines the allocation of instructional time in half-day versus full-day pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) classrooms within a Colorado public school district that predominantly serves Hispanic and low-income students. Using 114 observations from 34 pre-K classes over two years, with up to 14 repeated observations per teacher, we analyze the distribution of time across various activities and content areas. We find substantial variation in time allocation between half- and full-day classes, especially regarding instructional and non-instructional activities, suggestive of potential differences in learning opportunities across the school year. Notably, full-day classes include a daily nap within their additional hours. Furthermore, we observe a considerable portion of classroom time dedicated to mixed-content activities, highlighting the multidimensional nature of time use in school-based pre-K. Our study’s description of time allocation in this district also provides context for the previously published causal effects of the Full-Day Pre-K Study. Ultimately, the present study fills a gap in the body of research on time use in this early childhood education setting and informs stakeholders who are considering the expansion of pre-K programs to include a full-day option.
Recommended citation: Denker, H. & Atteberry, A. (2024). Where has all the time gone? Describing time use in full- vs. half-day pre-Kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 68, 235-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2024.05.007
Curricula in Early Childhood Education Preschool Settings
Forthcoming, 2025
Recommended citation: Engel, M., Denker, H., Shaw Attaway, D., (forthcoming). "Curricula in Early Childhood Education Preschool Settings.n" Eds. Cohen-Vogel, L, Scott, J., Youngs, P. Handbook of Education Policy Research – 2nd Edition..
talks
Comparing academic time use across second and third grades
Published:
Abstract: Bassok, Latham, and Rorem (2016) document that kindergarten has become more academic from the pre- to post-No Child Left Behind (NCLB) eras. They write that the percentage of kindergarten teachers who report that they teach mathematics daily increased from 83% to 91% and that the percentage of kindergarten teachers who report spending time every day on nonacademic subjects like music, art, dance, theater, and foreign language instruction decreased by 18% between 1998 and 2011 (Bassok et al., 2016). These findings bring into question whether accountability pressures have driven kindergarten classroom time-use to become less developmentally appropriate over time. Indeed, some scholars believe that the increase in reading and math instruction found in the primary grades disrupts the development of social skills and narrows the curriculum (Koretz, 2017; Morton & Dalton, 2007; Russell, 2011). Since students first encounter high-stakes standardized tests at the end of third grade (Hurst, Tan, Meek, Officer, & McArthur, 2003; Pianta, Belsky, Vandergrift, Houts, & Morrison, 2008), one may anticipate that there would be a dramatic change in the way time is allocated between second and third grade; however, to our knowledge this has yet to be empirically documented. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K:2011), a longitudinal, nationally representative study of a cohort of students, we document how teachers report time is used, on average, in a second-grade day compared to third-grade day. Since national patterns may mask important variability across schools and districts, we will also explore whether the shift in time-use for the ECLSK:2011 cohort between grades 2 and 3 looks different across U.S. school settings. It may be the case that, in some places, the second and third grade experiences exhibit strong continuity, while in others there is a marked shift in the kind of school day students experience. If we hypothesize that decisions about time-use at this juncture are connected to accountability policies, we expect that schools under greater pressure might exhibit very different time-use patterns. We adopt a multilevel modeling approach to partition variance in time-use across grades in the same school, across schools, and across districts/states (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). Having a post-NCLB description comparing second to third grade time-use using the ECLS-K: 2011 nationally-representative data is valuable to researchers looking to compare how the time used within early elementary grades shifts towards more academic content. For policy-makers considering how to enhance high-quality curricula and teaching, understanding how the time-use transition from second to third grade varies across the country could illuminate differences between their programs and the “typical” student experience.
And then comes testing: How schools reallocate classroom time when high-stakes testing begins in 3rd grade
Published:
Abstract: Bassok, Latham, and Rorem (2016) document that kindergarten has become more academic from the pre- to post-NCLB eras. For instance, they note that the percentage of kindergarten teachers who report teaching mathematics daily increased from 83% to 91% between 1998 and 2011. The findings from their paper suggest that accountability pressure has driven classroom time-use to become more academic in students’ earliest elementary experiences. As the enthusiasm for test-based accountability wanes, the field must reflect on whether those policies had the power to affect what happens in schools and classrooms and—if so—whether those responses exacerbated or ameliorated outcome inequality. Existing research indicates that certain aspects of schooling do respond to accountability pressure, such as how teachers are assigned to tested and untested grades, teachers’ pedagogical practices, and their (narrowed) curricular focus (Grissom, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2017; Jacob, 2005; Koretz, 2017). Other researchers find that schools with low-performing students often enact policy changes, specifically in regards to time allocation, and these changes are associated with achievement gains (Dee, Jacob, & Schwartz, 2013; Rouse, Hannaway, Goldhaber, & Figlio, 2007). We bring together these two lines of inquiry—the academization of time-use for young children and responses to accountability testing—by examining the shift in time-use between second and third grade (the earliest tested grade). We explore whether there is any apparent discontinuity in the allocation of classroom time from second to third grade that can be linked to testing for accountability purposes. To do so, we analyze ECLS-K:2011 teacher-reported time-use in all available elementary grades. Preliminary analyses suggest that the second-to-third grade shift in time spent on academics varies by subject in perhaps surprising ways. Moreover, this pattern differs between schools that did and did not make AYP the previous year. However, we also find that, among schools failing to make AYP, second-to-third grade time-use shifts are quite different in high poverty/minority schools than in their low poverty/minority counterparts. This differential response to accountability pressure may exacerbate existing opportunity gaps for young children.
Time to learn: Instructional time use in pre-Kindergarten
Published:
Abstract: Prior research has examined how time is allocated in pre-kindergarten classrooms. This study builds on that work to describe the variability in observed and teacher-reported instructional time-use as it is correlated with student outcomes. Using multiple linear regression and data from a randomized control trial in a public-school district in Colorado, my preliminary results show that on average the proportion of time spent on reading and math is similar across full- and half-day pre-kindergarten classroom. On average, full-day classrooms spend a greater proportion of their time on napping and meals, while half-day classrooms spend a slightly greater part of their day on social studies/science, music/art, and play.
(Mis)Measuring Pre-Kindergarten Classroom Characteristics
Published:
Authors: Hannah K. Denker & Allison Atteberry
Childcare Worker Onboarding Practices and their Relationship with Perceived Preparation, Efficacy, Job Satisfaction, and Commitment
Published:
Authors: Hannah K. Denker, Daphna Bassok, Anna J. Markowitz
teaching
Applications of Educational Technologies
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Oklahoma State University, 2011
Supervisor: Dr. Susan Stansberry
- Instructor for five sections of an educational technology course for undergraduates majoring in education. This course teaches pre-teacher candidates how to meaningfully integrate technology into standards-based lesson plans.
Elementary Classroom Teacher
Lead Teacher, Wichita Public School District, 2013
McCollom Elementary
- Taught 3rd grade in a school that integrated students on the autism spectrum into majority neurotypical classrooms.
- Appointed to School Leadership Committee
Quantitative Methods II
Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Colorado Boulder, 2020
Supervisor: Dr. Allison Atteberry
- Teaching assistant for the second course in a two-course sequence intended to teach linear regression and the Stata program to incoming PhD students in the School of Education. Taught one weekly class lab, held weekly office hours, and provided feedback on assignments.
School of Education Summer Math & Data Course
Graduate Instructor, University of Colorado Boulder, 2020
Supervisor: Dr. Benjamin Shear
- Instructor of an introductory statistics course for incoming PhD students to the School of Education at CU. This course is intended to prepare doctoral students for their first-year quantitative coursework.
Multilevel Modeling
Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Colorado Boulder, 2022
Supervisor: Dr. Benjamin Shear
- Teaching assistant for a multi-level modeling course. This course includes PhD student from across social science disciplines and walks through estimating and interpreting two- and three-level multilevel models using R. Answered questions and led group discussion in weekly class, held weekly office hours, and provided feedback on assignments.
Research Methods in Psychology
Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Colorado Boulder, 2023
Supervisor: Dr. Kelly Gildersleeve
- Teaching assistant for Psych 3111 Psychological Science 2: Research Methods in Psychology. This course includes undergraduate students majoring in psychology. I taught weekly lab where we walked through designing and conducting a student-led research project. The course culminated in students writing a research paper about their project and presenting a slidedeck for their projects at the end of the semester. I worked directly with about 30 students during lab, held weekly office hours, and provided feedback on assignments.