Classrooms and Teachers in Fall 2003

Across all the classrooms in the study, 54% of the children were predominantly Spanish-speaking, 41% spoke English as their primary language, less than 1% spoke Haitian Creole and the remainder spoke languages other than those. In spite of this linguistic diversity, most classrooms were linguistically homogeneous. In 36% of the classrooms, all the children spoke English as their primary language; in 48% all the children spoke Spanish as their primary language. In 16% of classrooms there was a mix of languages. (Exhibit A4 shows the distribution by treatment group.) In classrooms with one or more Spanish-speaking children, at least one staff member spoke Spanish.

Although Florida licensing regulations allow a staff:child ratio of 1:20 for four-year-olds, and have no group size requirements, the observational data suggest better ratios and relatively small group sizes. The average observed ratio was one staff member to 10 children, with an average group size of 15 children.

Three observational measures used in Fall 2003 captured the quality of the literacy environment before literacy materials were distributed and training for the curricula began. In general, they reflect an environment that offered little support for emergent literacy. On a measure of the richness of the print environment, that is the type and quantity of materials that support the development of early literacy skills, the average score across all classrooms was 1.1 out of a possible 3.0. While reading aloud was observed in 59% of the classrooms, most of those had only one read-aloud session and the average time spent in reading aloud was 13 minutes. Most activities involved the group as a whole or large groups of children, and only a small proportion of activities involved anything that might encourage emergent reading or writing.

Classroom Staff

More than half of the teachers in the study spoke Spanish as their primary language, though only 28% reported speaking only Spanish in the classroom. Just over one-quarter spoke English at home and 11% spoke both languages. A majority spoke English only (42%) or a mix of English and Spanish (26%) in the classroom. More than one-quarter (28%) had no education beyond high school. A small percentage (14%) reported some college education. More than half (58%) reported having an Associate or BA degree18. Of the post-secondary degrees reported, more than 75% were from institutions outside the United States. The distribution of staff characteristics was similar across the four groups (Exhibit A-4).