Building Local Capacity to Support High-Quality Teacher-Child Interactions in Early Childhood Special Education Classrooms

Description:

Registration

In response to state law, Virginia has developed the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5) to measure and help improve the quality of all publicly funded birth-to-five classrooms. Beginning August 2023, all publicly funded programs that serve children ages birth to five are required to participate in VQB5, annually complete two local classroom observations using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS®) and participate in external CLASS observations. This includes Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) classrooms.

To support VQB5, the Virginia Department of Education is announcing CLASS trainings for the purpose of building local capacity to implement observations in ECSE classrooms. An ECSE classroom is defined as a classroom, composed of 50 percent or more children with individualized education programs, where a special education teacher is responsible for the instruction of all areas of the Early Learning and Developmental Standards for children ages two through five and in preschool. The classroom may also serve children from the community without disabilities, making it a reverse inclusion classroom.

Registration is open for the CLASS trainings outlined below. Space is limited; therefore, registration will be limited to one training per participant and to two participants from each school division unless additional space is available.

Each two-day virtual training is free and will provide an in-depth review of the CLASS observation methodology and prepare participants to reliably assess the quality of teaching and instructor-student interactions. Materials will be distributed by mail prior to the training. Participants will need access to a computer with a camera and microphone and access to high-speed internet. Participation by telephone is not permitted.

Participants must attend both days to receive a certificate of completion and to take the online reliability test. Participants must take the reliability test to conduct local CLASS observations and must observe in ECSE classrooms. Prior to registering, participants should confirm these obligations can be fulfilled. Cancellations are highly discouraged.

Training dates:

• Pre-K: August 8-9
• Toddler: July 26-27, August 2-3

For questions regarding these CLASS trainings, please contact Dr. Dawn Hendricks, ECSE Coordinator, at (804) 225-2675 or Dawn.Hendricks@doe.virginia.gov.