Currently available measures of PreK classroom quality inconsistently predict gains in children's outcomes. Extant measures may not capture the full range of instructional practices—including the degree to which children are exposed to rich content and cognitively demanding instruction—that are important for supporting the development of early language and mathematics skills. The current study leverages data from systematic observations of classrooms (N = 51) in public schools and community-based organizations implementing the Boston Public Schools prekindergarten program to create reliable measures of content-rich instruction and cognitive demand and explore associations between these constructs and gains in children's (N = 378) language and mathematics skills during PreK. Findings from descriptive analyses revealed that classrooms used content-rich and cognitively demanding practices at moderate levels, and classrooms with higher levels of intervention fidelity generally used higher-quality practices. Classrooms with higher percentages of Black students scored lower on observed cognitive demand. Results from multi-level models revealed that content-rich instruction consistently predicted gains in mathematics skills. There were stronger, positive associations between both content-rich instruction and cognitive demand and gains in mathematics skills for children who started the year with stronger mathematics skills. Neither of the constructs predicted gains in language skills. There was no consistent evidence that associations between either of these constructs and gains in mathematics and language skills varied by children's race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or home language. Findings demonstrate that further work to measure and provide supports for exposure to rich instructional content in PreK is warranted.

目前可用的 PreK 课堂质量测量方法不一致地预测儿童成果的收益。现有的衡量标准可能无法涵盖所有​​的教学实践——包括儿童接触丰富内容和认知要求高的教学的程度——这对于支持早期语言和数学技能的发展很重要。目前的研究利用对公立学校教室 ( N  = 51) 的系统观察数据和实施波士顿公立学校学前班计划的社区组织创建内容丰富的教学和认知需求的可靠衡量标准，并探索这些结构和收益之间的关联在儿童（N = 378) PreK 期间的语言和数学技能。描述性分析的结果显示，课堂使用内容丰富且认知要求中等的实践，干预保真度较高的课堂通常使用更高质量的实践。黑人学生比例较高的教室在观察到的认知需求方面得分较低。多层次模型的结果表明，内容丰富的教学始终可以预测数学技能的进步。内容丰富的教学和认知需求之间存在更强、更积极的关联，并且对于那些开始具有更强数学技能的孩子来说，他们的数学技能有所提高。这两种结构都没有预测语言技能的进步。没有一致的证据表明这些结构与数学和语言技能的进步之间的关联因儿童的种族/民族、社会经济地位或家庭语言而异。研究结果表明，有必要开展进一步的工作来衡量和为接触 PreK 丰富的教学内容提供支持。