The relationship between classroom practices, instruction, professional development, and achievement in reduced size first grade classrooms

The purpose of this study was to extend the findings of the 1997–98 Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program. The SAGE program promotes the academic achievement of students in kindergarten through third grade in schools serving low-income children by reducing the student-teacher ratio in classrooms to 15:1. This study examined existing SAGE data to define how reading and language arts achievement in SAGE classrooms is affected by classroom practices, reading and language arts instruction and professional development opportunities.; Data from a three-part teacher questionnaire (Classroom Practices, Reading and Language Arts Curriculum, and Professional Development) completed by 56 teachers, along with standardized reading and language arts achievement scores from the students in their classes were examined. Statistical analysis was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, preliminary analyses evaluated the psychometric properties of the variables created from the teacher questionnaires to guide selection of the best performing variables for the regression analysis. In the second phase, regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relationship between classroom teaching, reading and language arts instruction, professional development, and (1) reading achievement, and (2) language arts achievement.; Results from the preliminary analyses of the teacher questionnaires were used to identify 5 variables for the regression analysis: one variable from the Classroom Teaching questionnaire, and two variables each from the Reading and Language Arts Curriculum and Professional Development questionnaires. Results of the regression analysis showed that two variables Promoting active and dynamic learning behaviors and Content of professional development sessions includes a range of activities moving from theory to practice were statistically significant predictors of reading achievement accounting for 21% of the variance. None of the five variables showed a significant relationship with language arts achievement.