Preschool Expulsion Rates and Social-Emotional Learning Support Across Neighborhood Contexts

• In Event: 16.056 - Examining the Role of Social and Emotional Learning in Young Children's Racial Development

Abstract

Recent Office for Civil Rights reports have highlighted high rates of gender and racial disparities in public preschool expulsion, and rates in private programs may be up to four times higher (Gilliam, 2006). Past research indicates that expulsions decrease when teachers have access to mental health consultants (Gilliam, 2005) however, such consultants are rare and this work pre-dates the proliferation of other social-emotional learning (SEL) supports like curricula. Prior studies also did not examine complex contextual factors impacting teachers struggling with children’s challenging behavior such as neighborhood contexts.
The present study uses survey data (N=126) collected from private center-based preschool teachers working in five diverse neighborhood types in Chicago to investigate the prevalence of and associations among expulsion requests and supports for SEL. On average, responses were received from teachers at 43% of recruited centers across neighborhood types. Respondents were 97% female, 39.6% Hispanic, and 58.9% held a BA. Teachers completed a survey about their background and training, workplace experiences, access to and use of supports, beliefs and practices in the classrooms, teachers’ own emotional competence and perception of children’s behavior.
Results
Between 24% and 39% of teachers reported requesting to have one or more children removed from their classrooms this year. Teachers in low income majority Black neighborhoods reported the highest rate of requests. Teachers in high income majority White neighborhoods reported fewer SEL Supports than teachers in both low income White and Hispanic neighborhoods F(4,116) = 1.94, p =.10. Access to SEL specific curricula varied by neighborhood type.
Teachers requesting expulsions did not significantly differ from those who did with regards to age, years of experience, or education level. Teachers in for-profit centers are slightly more likely to request expulsions than those in non-profit centers. χ2(1, N = 106) = 2.86, p =.09). Teachers who requested expulsions tended to be more depressed (F(1,106) = 10.35, p < .05) and perceived their jobs as more demanding (F(1,106) = 14.39, p < .00), held lower beliefs about the value of SEL (F(1,106) = 0.95, p < .05), reported more difficulties working with parents at their centers (F(1,106) = 3.54, p < .10), felt less supported by their centers in their interactions with parents (F(1,106) = 3.89, p = .05) as compared to teachers who did not request expulsions.
Children who were asked to leave tended to be four-years old, male, and Black. Children were asked to leave primarily for displaying unsafe behaviors and the most common action taken by centers was to meet with the children’s parents.
SEL Supports were not correlated with the rate of requested expulsions. However, greater reported use of SEL supports was associated with fewer expulsion requests (r=-.265, p<.01). Furthermore, teachers who requested expulsions tended to report lower SEL beliefs and less frequent use of available SEL supports. Presentation will include discussion of neighborhood type and child race and ethnicity trends as well as teachers’ perceptions of national racial and gender disciplinary trends.

Authors

• Kate M. Zinsser, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Vinoadharen Nair Das, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Courtney Anne Zulauf, University of Illinois at Chicago