This post was updated February 7, 2023, to reflect new data. It was originally published April 12, 2022.
As more and more early childhood educators participate in LENA Grow, we’re intent on making sure of a few very important things:
- That educators love the program. Our end-of-program surveys consistently show that they do.
- That the program is effective at changing classroom language environments and individual student outcomes for the better. We’re confident that it is because of program evaluations linking LENA Grow to increases in key CLASS® domains, TS GOLD® scores, Early Communication Indicator scores, and Developmental Snapshot scores.
- That educators receive the maximum amount of professional development credit for participating.
- That LENA Grow helps teachers increase self-efficacy and job satisfaction as professionals who play a critical role in children’s lives.
It’s that last bullet point that we want to concentrate on here. As of December 2022, 193 educators participating in LENA Grow have completed the Teacher Perception Survey before and after participating in the program. The survey measures how their perceptions about the early childhood profession may have changed.
Specifically, they answered 14 total questions on a scale of one to five. Each question fell into one of three domains:
- Beliefs and actions that support equitable language development — for instance, how much they read to their students, how often they talk with families about children’s language development, and how often behavioral issues arise.
- Job satisfaction — for instance, how often they feel stressed, how often they tell friends they enjoy their job, and how valued they feel as early childhood educators.
- Self-efficacy — for instance, how confident they are in their knowledge of child development, in their students’ future school success, in their ability to interpret data, and in their being on the cutting edge of the early childhood education workforce.
Here are some highlights from the results:
- Teachers showed significant increases in the total Teacher Perception Survey score.
- Pre/post gains occurred in 13 of 14 total questions.
- Within each domain, between 48% and 61% of teachers who had room to improve showed gains.
- Eight questions showed significant or near-significant increases:
| Self-efficacy | Beliefs and actions that support equitable language development | Job satisfaction |
|---|---|---|
| How confident are you in your ability to read and interpret data graphs? | How often do you talk to families about their child’s language development? | How comfortable do you feel talking with other professionals about the challenges you face daily?* |
| How confident are you that you know more about child development than other teachers/providers?* | How much talk is there during snacks and mealtime? | How valued do you feel as an early childhood professional? |
| How confident are you that you’re on the cutting edge of the early childhood education workforce? | On most days, how many times do you read with children in your care? |
Results like these complement the most affirming feedback of all: educators’ personal stories. As we continue to refine and improve the LENA Grow program, we’re committed to maximizing its impact not just on individual children’s lives, but also on early educators’ careers.
Say hello to LENA Grow!
LENA Grow delivers a single, straightforward, proven solution to boosting language development, supporting social-emotional development, increasing teacher satisfaction, and focusing on family engagement.
That solution: Giving early childhood educators the tools they need to improve language environments equitably and to truly connect with each and every child in their care.
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