Rebecca Bulotsky-Shearer ^1* Jill Ehrenreich-May ¹ Chelsea Morris ² Casey Mullins ¹ Bella Lerner ¹ Elizabeth Howe ¹ Jhonelle Bailey ³ Rinatte L Gruen ¹ Angelica C Gonzalez ¹

• ¹ University of Miami, Coral Gables, United States
• ² University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
• ³ University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States

In partnership with an urban school district Head Start program, we created a set of intervention supports that built upon the strengths of the district program services already in place. We conducted a randomized control trial to test the use of natural helpers (teachers, special education coaches, and curriculum specialists) participating in practice-based coaching and monthly communities of practice, to augment a districtwide universal social-emotional program, The Pyramid Model for Promoting Social and Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children. Participants included 53 preschool teachers and 519 preschool children, across 26 classrooms, and 9 schools in a high poverty area of the district. Teachers were randomized to a waitlist control or intervention condition. Intervention teachers participated in practice-based coaching and monthly communities of practice over the course of two years. Results show significant impacts on teacher outcomes, with increases in observed teacher implementation of positive social-emotional practices in the classroom, decreases in red flags (observed teaching behaviors counter to the Pyramid Model), and increased teacher reports of selfefficacy in the intervention group, compared to control teachers. No significant impacts on child classroom behavior problems, self-regulation, or approaches to learning skills were found for children enrolled in intervention classrooms, compared to children in the control classrooms. Future directions for research and implications for practice are discussed.