Do Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-3 and Pre-K Classroom Assessment Scoring System Scores Need to Reach Thresholds to Predict Children’s School Readiness?

Research Findings: We examined associations between young children’s school readiness and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale Third Edition (ECERS-3) and the Pre-K Classroom Assessment Scoring System (Pre-K CLASS), and whether these measures need to reach thresholds to promote children’s outcomes. We only found one significant linear association (of 30) between the ECERS-3 and Pre-K CLASS and children’s outcomes. We only detected three significant threshold findings (of 30). These suggested ECERS- 3 Math Activities and Learning Opportunities scores were stronger predictors of literacy skills in classrooms above the median on quality than in lower-quality classrooms. This provides the first evidence that there are some limited and small associations between the ECERS-3 and children’s learning when quality meets certain thresholds. We also found evidence that Pre-K CLASS Classroom Organization scores were associated with children’s behavioral outcomes when classroom quality was above the median. We did not find evidence of thresholds for other quality subscales or outcomes, or when using conceptually selected thresholds, supporting recent findings that associations between classroom quality and children’s outcomes are limited-even when examining thresholds.

Practice or policy: Early childhood monitoring systems should consider whether and how to set relevant thresholds for quality given limited associations between observed quality and children’s outcomes.