Differences In At-Risk Children's Preschool Assessment by Educators' Levels of Education

We determined that significant differences existed between assessment scores of at-risk children taught by assistant teachers with different levels of education using standardized assessments (Teaching Strategies GOLD [TSG] and Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening [PALS]). A 1-way MANOVA indicated that assistant teachers’ level of education was statistically significant at p = .012. Archived pretest and posttest data were collected from TSG and PALS assessment scores of 142 at-risk Prekindergarten 4 children taught by 18 different Prekindergarten 4 lead and assistant teachers at a local Head Start site. We found that irrespective of teachers’ levels of education, the role of assistant teachers should not be underestimated in at-risk children’s learning process. We recommend future studies focus on the role of assistant teachers in the classroom to ascertain whether teacher-child interaction was a factor in this study. Keywords: Lead teacher, Assistant teacher, Levels of education, At-Risk, TSG, PALS,