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Debates continue about how to teach young Latinos and other minoritized children in the US. Latinos are a compelling case because of (1) their size and (2) their paradoxical development: strong social competencies yet relatively weak academic development. A suggestion is to provide young Latinos with classroom experiences that resonate with the ways they are socialized at home, yet cultural dimensions of teaching in early education are underspecified and reliable and valid measures do not exist. We frame equitable teacher–child interactions as the combination of generic and cultural aspects, and as a way to utilize the social assets of Latinos in classrooms to enhance their academic development. We refine an observation protocol—the Classroom Assessment of Sociocultural Interactions (CASI)—by integrating cultural concepts from the Learning by Observing and Pitching In (LOPI) paradigm with videos of K-1 classrooms in Central Mexico, and conduct a series of psychometric analyses. We find good model fit and moderate reliability for the CASI and discuss research and practice implications to foster equitable developmental opportunities for Latino children across early education settings.

We trace the development and analyze the generalizability of the Classroom Assessment of Sociocultural Interactions (CASI), an observation system designed to measure cultural dimensions of classroo...

Teacher evaluation commonly includes classroom observations conducted by principals. Despite widespread use, little is known about the quality of principal ratings. We investigated 1,324 principals’ rating accuracy of six teaching practices at the conclusion of training within an authentic teacher evaluation system. Data are from a video-based exam of four 10-minute classroom observations. Many-Facet Rasch modeling revealed that (1) overall principals had high accuracy, but individuals varied substantially, and (2) some teaching episodes and practices were easier to rate accurately. For example, promotes critical thinking was rated more accurately than uses formative assessment. Because Many-Facet Rasch modeling estimates individuals’ accuracy patterns across teaching episodes and practices, it is a useful tool for identifying areas that individual principals, or groups, may need additional training (e.g., evaluating formative assessment). Implications for improving training of principals to conduct classroom observations for teacher evaluation are discussed.