Research Projects
CASTL brings together researchers from various disciplines within the Curry School of Education and from other units across the University of Virginia to conduct scientific studies on teaching, teacher quality, and the classroom experience from preschool through high school. Particular emphasis is placed on learning challenges posed by poverty, social or cultural isolation, or lack of community resources.
Projects are grouped by age level on this page. You can also view projects grouped within the following categories: Child Development Projects, Teacher Development and Support Projects, and Methodologies.
- Beliefs, Behavior, Belonging
- CLASS – Infant Version
- CLASS-Secondary
- CLASS: Measures of Effective Teaching
- CLASS: Ongoing Development and Dissemination of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System
- CLASS: Optimizing Reliability and Validity
- Classroom Relationships and Enthusiasm for Learning
- Effective Classroom Interactions – Development of Online Coursework
- Growth of Student Achievement in Public and Charter Schools
- Head Start Impact Study: Third Grade Follow up
- Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS) Project
- Learning About Teacher-Student Interactions (LATSI)
- LINKS Center
- Math & Science Achievement Gaps for Minority Students
- Minds in Motion Project
- MyTeachingPartner - Mathematics/Science
- MyTeachingPartner - Secondary
- MyTeachingPartner: 4Rs Social-Emotional Learning Program
- MyTeachingPartner: Geneva Head Start and Elementary Teachers
- National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education (NCRECE)
- National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning
- Preschool Experiences in Rural Classrooms (PERC)
- Preschool Relationships Enhancement Project (PREP)
- Project READS
- Social Competence in Preschool
- Summer Program for Kids Study
- Technology-Based Evaluation of Classroom Learning
- The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Data
- The Responsive Classroom Efficacy Study
- Touch your Toes! Kindergarten Readiness Study
- Virginia Education Science Training (VEST) Fellowships - Post-doctoral
- Virginia Education Science Training (VEST) Pre-doctoral Fellowships
New Version of the CLASS™ for Observing Infant Settings
The new Classroom Assessment Scoring System™ - Infant Version provides a much-needed tool for objectively describing the quality of interactions between caregivers and infants and the extent to which caregivers enable infants to learn about their environment. READ MORE
Success Story
Head Start began in 1965 and is the longest-running national school readiness program in the United States. Nearly 25 million low-income children and their families have benefited from Head Start's education services.
In 2007 Congress required Head Start to include research-based performance standards in its program monitoring. Head Start chose the CLASS tool for its nationwide improvement efforts. It is being used in all 50,000 Head Start classrooms int he U.S. as a measure of high quality teaching.
"With an assessment tool like CLASS, we've found a missing piece of the puzzle that we've been looking for, for a very long time," reports Amanda Bryans, director of the Office of Head Start's Educational and Partnerships Division. "This tool...[focuses] on something that we know is so important to a young child's life: supportive relationships built on quality interactions."
