We encourage you to allow your child to fully participate in the Understanding Teaching Quality study. Through direct observation of teachers and their interactions with students, we can begin to understand which teaching practices contribute most to student learning. Understanding what these practices are will help us to recommend programs designed to help both new and experienced teachers improve their teaching practice.

We are not asking teachers or students to do anything special or different because of this study--we simply want to observe classrooms as teachers and students engage in their regular activities.  However, we will be collecting two additional types of information that will be used for research purposes.   On a few occasions, your child’s classroom may be video recorded while a research observer takes notes about the teaching methods being used in the classroom.  No child’s name will be associated with this video recording.  In addition, on a few occasions, research observers will collect a small sample of classroom assignments that students complete and it is possible that your child’s assignments will be in that sample.  Student names will be removed from these assignments before they leave the school, so names will not be associated with these data. 

For more information, see Parents Q&A