Ideal Learning for children of color
By Iheoma Iruka and Katie Brown
A new study sees benefits and room for growth
In fall of 2021, we wrote here in MontessoriPublic about a study we were undertaking called Ideal Learning for All: Examining the Experiences of Children of Color in Ideal Learning Settings. Data collection for the study was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the study has finally been completed. In this issue, we’re back to provide a preliminary report on what we learned.
Background
The purpose of this study was to document the experiences of children of color in so-called “Ideal Learning” early childhood education settings. We know that education in the United States is rife with racialized disparities, including access to high-quality early learning experiences, opportunities to learn, racial segregation, and exclusionary discipline. Scholars have long pointed to early childhood education as a critical first opportunity to disrupt these patterns of inequity in children’s schooling. Yet studies of outcomes for children in state-funded traditional preschool programs and schools have been, at best, mixed, and, too often, disappointing.
Ideal Learning models, such as Montessori, seem to hold promise for reducing outcome disparities. The Ideal Learning Roundtable, an early childhood education consortium established by the Trust for Learning, has articulated eight Principles of Ideal Learning which “allow for multiple approaches, models, and traditions, and take into account the varied contexts within which early educators and care providers work.” Ideal Learning approaches embody these eight principles:
- Decision-making reflects a commitment to equity
- Children construct knowledge from diverse experiences to make meaning of the world
- Play is an essential element of young children’s learning
- Instruction is personalized to acknowledge each child’s development and abilities
- The teacher is a guide, nurturing presence, and co-constructor of knowledge
- Young children and adults learn through relationships
- The environment is intentionally designed to facilitate children’s exploration, independence, and interaction
- The time of childhood is valued
- Continuous learning environments support adult development
- In this study, we examined the quality of experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse learners in Ideal Learning settings using two innovative observation tools.
Our approach
To answer these questions, we recruited publicly funded Montessori, HighScope, and Reggio Emilia-inspired early childhood programs who allowed us to observe in their classrooms. During the 2022-23 school year, we visited 34 classrooms in six different schools scattered across the Midwest, the South, and the Mid-Atlantic. We used two different tools to collect data during our classroom observations. The Developmental Environment Rating Scale (DERS), developed by the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector (NCMPS), is an assessment of classroom quality based on five developmental outcomes:
The DERS contains 60 items pertaining to child behaviors, adult behaviors, and the physical environment. Trained observers score these items using an iPad app during a 45- to 60-minute classroom observation.
The Assessing Classroom Sociocultural Equity Scale (ACSES) measures teachers’ culturally responsive practices and equitable learning opportunities. It assesses the extent to which teachers are affirming children of color’s engagement in the classroom and their use of equitable and positive discipline practices across five dimensions:
- Challenging Status Quo Knowledge
- Equitable Learning Opportunities
- Equitable Discipline
- Connections to Home Life
- Personalized Learning Opportunities
A classroom observation measure coded through videotaped interactions, ACSES was designed intentionally and explicitly to focus on equitable learning opportunities in the classroom. This tool combines features of traditional process quality (such as emotional and instructional climate) with a racial equity focus to measure classroom quality, making racial equity and sociocultural diversity central to the conceptualization of quality. Specifically, based on 40 indicators, ACSES measures the quality of the conversation within the classroom (e.g., classroom discourse), peer relationships, discipline, emotional connections between teachers and peers, and how effectively critical thinking is fostered through questions (e.g., analyzing and brainstorming questions) and dialogue with all racially marginalized learners (RMLs). RMLs are defined as children in the classroom who come from culturally, racially, and ethnically minoritized groups who have been denied or restricted access to quality education.
What we learned
The DERS yields scores across five domains. For each domain, classrooms are classified as Low-Performing, Developing, High-Functioning, or Optimal. For the dataset as a whole, average domain scores all fell within the Developing score band. However, the 10 Montessori classrooms fell (on average) into the High-Functioning score band. The highest average domain scores were for Inhibitory Control and Linguistic and Cultural Fluency, while the lowest scores were in Social Fluency and Emotional Flexibility.
Generally speaking, undesirable child behaviors were, on average, less prevalent than desirable child behaviors. Children exhibited high levels of engagement, care, and joy. Conversation was prevalent in the classrooms we observed, and children exhibited behaviors requiring executive functions, such as shifting and waiting their turn, fairly often. Children were rarely observed disrupting or misusing materials, and were generally able to engage in work without seeking adult approval or permission.
Likewise, desirable adult behaviors were more prevalent than undesirable ones, though some negatively scored adult behaviors, such as calling across the room and praising to flatter, were not uncommon. The classroom environments exhibited many favorable characteristics. They were generally clean, outfitted with equipment made from natural materials, and ready for children to enter and work. Children had rich opportunities to develop language and their senses. Mixed-age groupings of two to three years were common, but not universal.
ACSES also yields scores across five domains. For each domain, classrooms are classified as Low, Moderate, and High. A score of less than 2 is classified as low, while 2-3 is moderate and 4-5 is high. On average, the classrooms in this study scored low on Challenging Status Quo Knowledge (CSQK) and Connections to Home Life (CHL). These classrooms earned a moderate score in the dimensions of Personalized Learning Opportunities (PLO) and Equitable Learning Opportunities (ELO). On average, these classrooms scored high on Equitable Discipline (ED). ACSES scores were similar across HighScope, Reggio Emilia-inspired, and Montessori classrooms. However, these Ideal Learning program scores are observably higher in the ELO and ED dimensions compared to traditional early childhood programs, such as Pre-K and Head Start.
This study represented the first time that these two instruments were used together, and so presented a unique opportunity to understand how the constructs they measure might be related. To do this, we correlated the DERS domain scores with the ACSES dimension scores for all 34 participating classrooms. Though our sample size is small, we do see some evidence of correlation in our dataset. Specifically, the Equitable Discipline dimension from the ACSES was significantly correlated with all five DERS domains. The strength of these associations would generally be classified as medium.
This suggests that classrooms with higher levels of equitable discipline practices are more likely to also be classrooms that effectively support executive functions, literacy, and social-emotional development. While this correlation does not indicate whether this relationship is causal, it does suggest that these classroom characteristics tend to go together. This finding is important in light of many reports showing that Black children and other minoritized children are more likely to experience exclusionary practices, such as suspension and expulsion, compared to White children.
The limitations of this study must be acknowledged, including the small sample size and the convenient sample. Future studies should have a larger sample of Ideal Learning programs as well as randomly selected classrooms. Nonetheless, this study is the first of its kind to provide new data on how Ideal Learning programs like Montessori and Reggio Emilia-inspired are serving children of color.
These two measures indicate that children of color in Ideal Learning classrooms are likely to be in moderate quality programs that support equitable learning opportunities and engage in equitable discipline while promoting concentration, emotional flexibility, and inhibitory control. Unfortunately, the data also shows that more work is needed in these programs to ensure that children of color, whose educational opportunities have historically been of poor quality, are in early settings that connect children’s learning to their home life and challenge status quo knowledge to ensure the history and excellence of people of color are centered in the programs.