Akihito Kamata, executive director of the Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) in Simmons, is leading a research partnership between his team and the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) to improve the quality of pre-K classrooms.
A $400,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences will allow researchers to examine pre-K classroom practices in all of the district’s programs.
The purpose of the research partnership is to systematically improve overall pre-K quality through the professional development Dallas ISD provides to instructional coaches and pre-K classroom teachers.
The partnership will focus on differentiating professional development for teachers based on teacher need, focusing on high-quality teacher–child interactions aligned with the CLASS observation instrument and the associated professional development system.