Question
Why should I use the CLASS?
Answer
Why are districts and states using the CLASS and why should I use the CLASS? I have used the CLASS in various settings. Regardless of the setting, I think that the most helpful outcome of it has been developing a consistent lens for looking at classroom quality that goes across settings. If I am in one specific school or one center, it is really helpful for everyone on our team to know what we mean when we say we are looking for high-quality classrooms. If we do not ground that in some common language and a common vision, what I say and what the teacher next door to me says might mean really different things. For example, when we say "really loving and supporting interactions with kids," the CLASS helps us have some shared language around that. This provides a consistent bar for looking at quality all the way up to the state or federal policy level. If I am implementing a state quality rating system and I need to be able to look at all the programs in my state across a consistent lens, the CLASS can help me do that.
Once you have that consistent lens, teachers, administrators, and leaders can do all kinds of things. One of the most important things that I found is it is a really helpful tool for reflection. When teachers understand the CLASS really well, they can reflect and think about their classroom and their practice in a different and deep way which I have found to be powerful and empowering for teachers in the room.
As a coach, I've also seen it to be useful because we can ground our coaching conversations in a shared understanding with that vision for quality. It's not just me telling a teacher they need to do X because I think it's a good idea. It is the CLASS that says high-quality language development looks like this and that has been research-proven, so that is what I am working towards. It is a good way to have some research backing your practice.
The third piece is it can be used for accountability purposes. If programs, teachers, and administrators understand what the tool is, that is much more helpful than just having some arbitrary tool that no one really understands. As I said, there are many different reasons that programs or districts may be using the CLASS, all of which can be incredibly helpful. Generally, the more we know about the tool, the more applicable it can be, and the more we can use it.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Interpreting Your CLASS Scores, presented by Jennifer Rosenbaum, MEd.
