# Behavioral engagement and executive functions as contributors to school readiness

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA · 2020 · $565,862

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 With the original grant (R01 HD051498), we developed, field-tested, and validated the Individualized
Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS), an observational assessment of a child's behavioral
engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks within pre-k and kindergarten (K) classrooms. Justification for this
work rested on evidence that children's interactions with peers, teachers, and instructional activities in pre-k
were proximal mechanisms contributing to their social, mathematics, language, and literacy learning. As such,
a direct assessment of children's classroom engagement provides essential information as to how children
actually develop school readiness skills. We propose this competitive renewal as the pressing next step in a
line of work with the inCLASS observational tool to understand how the interplay between children's
engagement and their executive functions (EF) contribute to school readiness and K school performance,
beyond the role of individual differences and home experiences children bring with them to pre-k. The aims of
this longitudinal observational study are to: 1) Examine how children's engagement and EF relate to one
another during pre-k. We hypothesize that engagement and EF will have a positive, reciprocal association
with each other over time, with EF serving as the leading indicator; these links will be stronger under conditions
of high classroom quality. 2) Determine the extent to which children's engagement and EF contribute to
development of more distal readiness skills and school performance. The repeated measures,
longitudinal design will permit us to examine mechanisms by which engagement and EF facilitate school
readiness skill development and later K school performance. In particular, we expect engagement will mediate
the links between children's EF and the more distal child outcomes. 3) Examine the role of classroom
quality (e.g., teacher-child interactions, time spent on literacy instruction) over time. We anticipate
classroom quality indicators having a positive direct effect on children's EF, behavioral engagement, readiness
skills, and school performance, while also hypothesizing that classroom quality will moderate the links between
children's engagement and EF, and the development of readiness skills and school performance
 We propose a longitudinal study of 100 pre-k teachers and 800 pre-k children and their primary
caregivers, with follow-up of children into 200 K classrooms. Within each pre-k classroom, eight children will be
randomly selected for assessments of school readiness (language, literacy, mathematics, social skills) in the
fall and spring of the pre-k and K years, with supplemental K school performance data collected from school
archives. Assessments of behavioral engagement and classroom quality will be obtained through repeated live
observations, whereas EF will be measured during repeated direct assessments (all across both years). The
knowledge gained fr...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9856149
- **Project number:** 5R01HD051498-10
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Jason T Downer
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $565,862
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2005-09-30 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9856149

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9856149, Behavioral engagement and executive functions as contributors to school readiness (5R01HD051498-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9856149. Licensed CC0.

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