Teacher-Child Relationship Quality and Beyond: Unpacking Quality in Early Head Start Classrooms in 2018. OPRE Report 2022-122

Early Head Start is a comprehensive, two-generation federal initiative for low-income pregnant women and families who have infants and toddlers ages 3 or younger. The Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS) require center-based and family child care Early Head Start programs to "provide responsive care, effective teaching, and an organized learning environment that promotes healthy development and children's skill growth…" (45 CFR §1302.31). The goal of this report is to provide a descriptive snapshot of overall quality in Early Head Start classrooms, with a focus on the quality of the teacher-child relationship. In addition, it examines how classroom practices and other features of the classroom are associated with teacher--child relationships, and whether teacher-child relationship quality in Early Head Start is associated with infant and toddler outcomes. The findings broaden the knowledge about the quality of teacher-child relationships in early care and education settings and how it might be improved to better support infants and toddlers. Understanding quality in Early Head Start classrooms can help inform training and technical assistance, professional development, and other quality improvement efforts. This report uses data collected from the 2018 round of Baby FACES. Baby FACES 2018 is a nationally representative, descriptive study of Early Head Start programs, centers, teachers and classrooms, and enrolled families and children. The study, conducted at a single point in time, explored classroom processes and teacher-child relationships in depth, using multiple observation-based measures of classrooms and teachers and teacher-report measures. This report includes data from surveys of children's parents, teachers, and center and program directors, as well as teacher reports on children's development.