Project Summary/Abstract Children from economically disadvantaged families are at risk for starting school behindtheir more affluent peers.12 Pre-academic skills and the development of executive functions(EF) our focus in the proposed study are two key aspects of school readiness that contribute tolong-term trajectories of social and academic success.34 In this secondary data analysis studywe focus on the quality of teacher-child interactions in the classroom as a key lever to improveearly school functioning. Specifically the quality of both individual teacher-child interactions andclassroom-level teacher instructional and emotional support have been linked to development ofschool readiness skills5-7 but the ways in which these two aspects of teacher interactionalquality interact to promote childrens early learning is unclear. The overall goal of this project isto both identify and disentangle the effects of individual teacher-child relationship quality andclassroom-level support on childrens development of pre-academic and EF skills across oneyear of Head Start. Using a child-centered analysis we will identify multidimensionalconstellations or profiles of individual and classroom-level teacher interactional quality forwhom these profiles exist (by examining child and teacher characteristics) how these profileschange across the school year and how membership in these profiles is linked to growth inschool readiness skills. Identifying patterns of teacher interactional quality that facilitatechildrens early learning will contribute to enhancing Head Start practice and developinginterventions to close school readiness achievement gaps ultimately facilitating long-termschool success for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. We will use data from the Head Start CARES (Classroom-based Approaches andResources for Emotion and Social skill promotion) dataset which includes 307 teachers and2114 four-year-old children representing the national Head Start population and features richdata on teachers classrooms and longitudinal school readiness outcomes. We will usecomplementary person-centered and multi-level variable-centered and analytical approaches toachieve the study goals. Our novel approach to considering classroom interactional quality willinform the future development of classroom interaction interventions matched to the needs ofindividual teachers and children to promote the acquisition of pre-academic and EF skills amongHead Start participants and other economically disadvantaged children.