In a recent speech to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan cited Bob Pianta and the CLASS tool as an example of progress the nation is seeing in the field of early learning.
“Last month I spoke to students from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education about the need to recruit an army of new teachers to our nation’s schools,” Duncan said. “It is no secret that the early learning field faces similar challenges of recruiting, preparing and retaining effective teachers and caregivers. But I am impressed that Curry’s dean, Robert Pianta, and his colleagues have developed an assessment used in thousands of pre-K classrooms that demonstrates that a teachers’ skill in implementing curriculum makes the critical difference in student learning. His research has documented that only about a quarter of the programs serving four-year olds provide children with the high levels of emotional and instructional support that they need.”
Find the full text of Secretary Duncan’s speech here: http://www2.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/11/11182009.html
