Introduction
The Study of Coaching in Early Care and Education Settings (SCOPE) was designed to examine the variations in coaching in ECE. The sample was recruited across seven geographically dispersed states that demonstrated active implementation of coaching in at least one ECE setting. The centers and family child care (FCC) provider homes in the SCOPE sample served children from families with low incomes primarily through a Head Start grant and/or with Child Care and Development Fund subsidies (though many settings had other sources of revenue as well). Surveys were provided to ECE coaches and to a sample of ECE center-based teachers and FCC providers who participated in coaching. Surveys were collected in 2019, and a set of follow up surveys was collected in 2022 from respondents to the 2019 survey. The initial surveys examined a wide range of coaching features and processes, program context and supports provided to coaches. The follow up surveys explored the impact of COVID on coaching implementation for ECE. Data from the SCOPE study is available for secondary analyses at the Child and Family Data Archive.
Purpose
This brief focuses on information from the SCOPE 2019 surveys with coaches, center teachers, and FCC providers. We describe information from the coaches, teachers, and FCC providers related to the coaches’ caseloads and the dosage of the coaching.
Key Findings and Highlights
- Multiple factors contribute to an understanding of “caseload”. Caseload may typically be thought of as “number of teachers/providers being coached”. However, calculation methods (at center level, teacher/provider) level), contributing factors (geographic distribution of coaching settings; frequency of meetings), and variations in coaching content (each teacher/provider receiving same coaching or tailored coaching) could impact caseload interpretation.
- Caseload size, based on number of providers/teachers served, was highly varied and typically larger for SCOPE 2019 coaches who worked across both centers and FCC homes.
- Most ECE coaches in SCOPE 2019 worked full time and spent the majority of their working hours involved in coaching-related activities, suggesting that coaching was the primary component of their job.
- Across settings and caseload size, SCOPE 2019 coaches met and communicated frequently with teachers and FCC providers.