CLASS® in Virginia
Interactions matter now more than ever, and they can improve outcomes for Virginia's children.The Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5)
Virginia’s early childhood system must ensure that all children have quality teaching and learning experiences that meet their unique needs. To do this, Virginia has developed the Unified Virginia Quality Birth to Five System (VQB5) which recognizes the impact of every classroom, provides feedback to every educator, and supports all publicly funded birth-to-five programs to improve.
VQB5 is a measurement and improvement system that focuses on the quality of all publicly-funded birth-five classrooms and supports families to choose quality programming across different program types. VQB5 sets shared expectations for measuring quality and supporting teachers for all birth to five programs. Through VQB5, teachers and leaders will receive the feedback and support they need to help young children learn.
Why Interactions? Why CLASS®?
Born from years of research, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System™, commonly known as CLASS®, was developed to focus, measure, and continuously improve the elements of teaching proven to have the greatest impact – the interactions between teachers and students. Studies have shown that these small intentional acts delivered throughout the day can add up to a huge impact.
Now used throughout the United States and around the world, CLASS has empowered thousands of teachers and impacted countless students. We have worked with programs across the world and will put that experience to work to assist you in implementing CLASS observation and professional development in your own community, school, program, or district.
Teachstone is committed to supporting Virginia’s quality initiatives through our work to ensure all children experience life-changing teaching by focusing on interactions that are proven to drive positive development and learning.
Download the WHY CLASS? E-Book
CLASS 2nd Edition
Virginia will continue to use the CLASS 1st edition (original) version of the tool for VQB5 Year 1 (2023-2024) in all age groups. Virginia has demonstrated a strong investment in this original version of the CLASS tool, and the VQB5 system is well prepared to support its use statewide.
VDOE will use VQB5 Year 1 as an opportunity to learn about the 2nd edition enhancements to CLASS and gather feedback from the field.
Questions can be sent to vqb5@doe.virginia.gov.
Read about CLASS in Virginia Explore CLASS 2nd Edition
Register for a VDOE CLASS® Observation Training
To help build local CLASS Observer capacity in support of child care centers and family day homes participating in VQB5, the Virginia Department of Education is offering monthly training opportunities during the first full implementation year of VQB5. (2023-2024).
VDOE Sponsored CLASS Observer Trainings are only open to Ready Regions staff/contractors or center/FDH leaders who are participating in VQB5 Year 1. All participants are required to take the reliability test at the completion of the Observation training and be prepared to conduct local CLASS observations in child care centers and family day homes participating in VQB5.
Children with Disabilities
As educators interact with children with disabilities, they connect in ways that cultivate emotionally supportive relationships, engage learners in ways that create a context for learning, and leverage instructional support tailored to the needs of each child in order to inspire learning. Visit this page to find resources designed to guide efforts to use CLASS® to capture these interactions.
Through an agreement with the Virginia Department of Education, lower pricing is available for many CLASS trainings and supporting materials.
Your dedicated success team is here to help you every step of the way, whether you are just getting started with CLASS or are a seasoned CLASS veteran. Nicole Shinn and Christine Meyer are available to provide guidance and help you structure a solution to improve child outcomes through quality teacher-child interactions.
