Expanding the Infant Achievements Intervention Through Community Partnerships

Centering Community Partnerships to Facilitate Scaling Up of Infant Achievements for Community Implementation

The goal of the research study is to increase teachers' implementation of evidence-based practices in Early Head Start classrooms through the delivery of a professional development (PD) training intervention. The main questions that the study aims to answer are:

1. Does teacher participation in a PD intervention improve the use of evidence-based practices from pre- to posttest?
2. To what extent is the PD intervention feasible to implement in an established child care program?
3. To what extent is the PD program acceptable to teachers?

Participants will attend PD workshops and participate in content-related job-embedded coaching sessions during the implementation of the study.

The primary objective of the research study is to increase teachers' implementation of evidence-based practices in Early Head Start classrooms through the delivery of a professional development (PD) training intervention. It is hypothesized that teachers' fidelity to developmentally-appropriate practices, assessed through classroom observation measures, will increase following their participation in a comprehensive PD training intervention. The secondary hypotheses are that (1) the PD intervention is feasible to implement in an established child care program, and (2) the PD program is acceptable to teachers. Teacher participants will attend PD workshops, co-developed with community partners, and engage in follow-up job-embedded coaching sessions occurring weekly in their classrooms.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Participants must currently work in an early childhood classroom serving children between 8-36 months of age.
• Participants must work in the role of a teacher or teacher assistant in an Early Head Start location.
• Participants must be willing to participate in two 60-90-minute trainings/workshops.
• Participants must be willing to participate in eight follow-up job-embedded coaching sessions

Exclusion Criteria:

• Works in a childcare setting outside of the Baltimore metro area
• Non-English speaking