Head Start suspends CLASS® reviews for school year

The Office of Head Start (OHS) announced Wednesday that CLASS^® reviews for the 2020-2021 school year have been suspended, and other monitoring reviews will be handled virtually due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

 “OHS understands that having outside monitors visit programs, in some locations, may increase the exposure to COVID-19,” the Information Memorandum stated. “Limiting visitors to Head Start facilities is consistent with guidance on best practices from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention on safely providing child care in group settings during the pandemic.”

Although CLASS^® reviews have been suspended for the school year, it’s still important to perform internal assessments to keep track of teacher-child interaction in ChildPlus.  By continuing your internal CLASS assessments, you can continue to monitor your teacher-child interactions and analyze which teachers need certain types of training based on your CLASS^® assessment data. Agencies can also reach out to their regional training and technical assistance (T/TA) specialist to conduct training on best practices or refer to the Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) website for additional resources.

The fully-integrated CLASS^® scoring and reporting system in ChildPlus provides graphs and reports that instantly tell you how your teachers are doing along with each teachers’ strengths and areas to grow.

Administrators can use the collected data to plan strategies and trainings for staff to improve in areas not meeting agency or OHS goals.  Agencies should continue improving their teacher-child interactions in order to provide high quality instruction.

The CLASS® module in ChildPlus works for any Head Start or Early Head Start program and any center-based classroom type!

For more information about monitoring reviews, visit the Information Memorandum from OHS.