All Things CLASS

Hello, 

My team and I have also just completed our CLASS Environments certification and have the same questions.  I had been in contact with somebody from Reliability Support and she forwarded my question on to the experts. This is how I was guided:

Each column is added up - count how many items scored in the 1 column and multiply by 1; count how many items scored in the 2 column, multiply by 2, and so on.  Those totals are added together to provide an overall score.  So a score could be 72 - but there's no context (at least none that I have noticed).

I was also given the guidance that I could average each domain to correlate directly with the CLASS observation scores OR average them by materials.  I am choosing to average by domain - I think this will support my teachers best.  I recently did a practice Environment observation to get used to using the tool (and to get out of my ERS brain) - I believe my averages looked something like this: ES 2.80  CO 3.00  IS 2.90

I attended a webinar this evening from CDE and they provided a great quote - "The materials are there to support you [educators] in those interactions with the children".  I believe that when I am doing a follow up visit I can clearly provide a direct correlation between the classroom materials and the Dimension scores and Domain averages.

For example, if the score is low for Concept Development, there might be a direct connection to fewer math or science materials.

This is MY interpretation.  I hope it helps.  And, of course, if there is a Teachstone representative reading this - please confirm, or not.

Good Morning!

First off - congratulations on completing the CLASS Environment course.  I hope it was helpful.  I love that you are practicing using the tool - I find that to be helpful because it allows you to identify areas where you might want additional clarity.

Interpreting scores tends to be one of those areas.  I hope I can offer some clarity to you. 

You are correct; a total score is obtained by summing the number of items scored 1, 2, and 3 and multiplying each sum by the item score.  Adding each of these totals provides you with the total score. While that gives you a total score, this score isn't straightforward to interpret, nor does it factor in that some items may be scored as N/A (for example, if a program does not use technology).

I have found that the easiest way to calculate an easy-to-interpret score is to divide the total score by the number of items that received a numerical score to calculate the average score per item.  If your total score was 65 and 28 items were scored, then the average item score is 2.32. Since we know that a score of 2 on an item means that there is some evidence of the item, we know that most items were scored a 2 or 3, which means that the environment has at least limited evidence of most of the items on the tool.

Depending on how deep you want to understand your data, you might also want to calculate the average item score by CLASS domain since each item is also associated with a CLASS domain. You would do this by summing the item scores for the items linked with each domain and dividing it by the number of items that received a numerical score. as suggested by @Cindie Marquez. 

While CLASS Environment items can support CLASS domains, there is no statistical correlation between  CLASS Environment scores and CLASS domain scores.Since CLASS Environment is only assessing the extent to which the environment has the types of materials that can support meaningful interactions, and CLASS assesses the degree to which educators engage in meaningful interactions, a classroom can have many and varied types of materials, but if the educator is not engaging in high-quality interactions they could have a high CLASS environment score, but their CLASS scores could be lower.    

It is helpful to have both CLASS Environment data and CLASS data because it can identify points of intervention. Suppose the classroom doesn't have sufficient materials to support Instructional support. In that case, it might be difficult for the educators to demonstrate the types of interactions that would translate into higher scores in that domain.  

It sounds like you are just getting started with CLASS Environment, so it is best to focus on practicing the tool and collecting data. Once you feel confident with those steps, I encourage you to make sense of the data to plan for program improvement.