Central Kentucky Community Action                   Council Head Start

CLASS is an observation instrument developed to assess quality in classrooms.  CLASS focuses on 3 domains-Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.  Each domain has dimensions that characterize the domain:  Emotional Support which includes: Positive Climate, Negative Climate, Teacher Sensitivity, Regard for Student Perspective.  Classroom Organization includes:  Behavior Management, Productivity, Instructional Learning Formats.  Instructional Support which includes:  Concept Development, Quality of Feedback, Language Modeling. Four twenty minute observations are conducted by a CLASS Reliable observer and scored.  Each observation is scored on a scale from 1 to 7.  One being the lowest and 7 being the highest. 

Central Kentucky CAC Head Start leadership is familiar with research demonstrating the importance of teacher-child interactions in helping promote positive outcomes for children.  The second key component of the Central Kentucky CAC Head Start School Readiness Plan focuses on teacher-child interactions. The team identified two goals for this component:

• Ensure that all classrooms provide effective social, organizational, and instructional teacher-child interactions.

• Systematically use professional development resources to target areas of practice across classrooms, as well as provide more intensive support to teachers most in need.