Center Director Interview (Instrument 5)

OMB No.: XXXX-XXXX

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

SCOPE Center Director Interview Protocol

Introduction

An important part of the Study of Coaching Practices in Early Care and Education Settings (SCOPE) study is learning about how coaching is working for early care and education programs across the country. The goal of our interview for the SCOPE project is to understand more about the coaching and professional development supports your program has received since COVID-19 began in early 2020.

Participation in this interview is voluntary; refusing to participate or answer a question will not negatively affect you in any way. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is XXXX-XXXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.

Your responses will remain private. We will not share any information that identifies you or your organization to anyone outside the study team, except as required by law. The information in this study will be used only for research purposes and in ways that will not reveal who you are. You will not be identified in any publication from this study. Data from this study will be transmitted to the Child & Family Data Archive or a similar data archive at the end of the study so it can be used by other researchers. No personal information that could identify you or your program will remain in the interview notes that are shared with the data archive.

I would like to record our discussion so I can listen to it later when I write up my notes. No one besides our research team will listen to the recording. If you want to say anything that you don’t want recorded, please let me know and I will be glad to pause the recorder. We will delete all recordings at the end of the study. Do you have any objections to being part of this interview or to my recording our discussion?

We will have about 45 minutes for our conversation today. Do you have any questions for us before we begin? Great! Let’s get started.

1. For the SCOPE project, we first learned about your program’s experiences with coaching when you completed a survey in 2019. You recently completed another survey to help us understand your experiences now. We realize things may have changed for you and your program since COVID-19 began in early 2020. In the survey you mentioned some of the types of professional development support that your program has received in since the COVID-19 began [insert information from Qx and Qx]. Have there been any other changes since then?

2. How would you describe the professional development supports that your program is receiving now?

   1. Who is providing these supports to your program?

   2. How has looking for professional development opportunities changed since COVID-19 began? Would you say it is easier or harder to find opportunities that meet your (or your staffs’) needs?

   3. When you think about coaching—and by coaching we mean individuals who work with you one-on-one or with your teaching team on a regular basis to provide feedback and guidance to help you improve your practices—would you say that you are currently receiving any coaching?

      1. If yes: In what ways has coaching changed? Are there any ways that coaching is the same as it was before COVID-19 began in early 2020?

      2. Are you [or your teachers] receiving remote coaching?

         1. If yes, tell us about what remote coaching has been like for you/your staff—what has worked well? What has been challenging?

         2. If no, are there specific reasons why you aren’t receiving remote coaching right now?

Prompt, if needed: Not available? Too difficult to manage the technology? Teachers/I didn’t want to? Focused on other priorities?

3. If no: Could you tell us why coaching isn’t happening right now?

3. Thinking of the professional development supports you or your staff have received since COVID-19 began in early 2020, in what ways are they the same as the types of supports you received before the pandemic? In what ways have these supports changed, if at all?

   1. Prompt, if needed: Are there differences in how relevant the supports are to your program? Cost? Who from your program is participating? Satisfaction of your program staff with these supports? Differences in "uptake" or impact of the practices being addressed in PD?

   2. [If they mention working with a coach] How prepared do you think your coach is to help identify program needs and address current needs of your center/classrooms?

   3. [If they mention working with a coach] How prepared do you think your coach is to work with you in new ways, like meeting remotely?

4. Thinking of the professional development supports you/your staff have received since COVID-19 began in early 2020, in what ways have these supports been helpful to you/your teachers and classrooms?

   1. Probe, if needed: Increasing your/their knowledge? Changed practices in the classroom? Reducing stress? Improving health and safety?

5. Thinking of the professional development supports you/your staff have received since COVID-19 began in early 2020, is anything missing? What other types of support do you/your teachers need?

   1. Prompt, if needed: On certain topics or teaching strategies? On technology use and tech tools?

6. [If they mention working with a coach] Thinking about your communication with your coach since COVID-19 began in early 2020, what has worked well? What has been challenging?

   1. Prompt if not mentioned: Have you had any challenges with reaching your coach? With your coach not following through? With being unsure of what help you needed?

In this next set of questions, we would like to ask you about some of the challenges that child care programs may have experienced since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

7. What are the greatest challenges your program faces in providing quality care right now?

   1. Prompt, if needed: financial stability, finding or paying for materials/supplies, managing stress, supporting learning in children of various ages, supporting children’s well-being, communicating with families.

8. What has been the most helpful to your program in providing quality care right now?

9. Is there anything else that we haven’t talked about that you think is important for us to know about the impacts of COVID-19 on coaching or other program supports?

Updated November 2020 2