Preliminary Effects of the Incredible Years Teacher Training Program on Classroom Management Skills

The overall purpose of this IES-funded Goal 3 study, now entering its third year, is to evaluate the efficacy of Incredible Years Teacher program (IYT) for improving K-2 students' academic achievement, attention, and social-emotional competence. The authors will also examine the extent to which classroom behavior mediates the relationship between teacher management skills and students' academic performance in the classroom. The current poster, based upon teacher data from the first two cohorts, will present preliminary data on whether participation in IYT is associated with change over time in the classroom environment and quality of teacher interactions with students for trained teachers as compared to wait-list control teachers. Data include the CLASS (Pianta & Hamre, 2005) and the Teacher coder Impressions Inventory (TCI; Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Hammond, 2001), which are based on blind observer ratings. The CLASS is a multi-dimensional standardized instrument that has been widely used in early education classrooms and has been associated with gains in students' achievement and social adjustment. The TCI was developed to align more closely with the intervention and has been used primarily in research on the efficacy of IYT. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)