Raising the Bar: How Teaching Kindergartners With Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities Boosts Teachers' Readiness Expectations

• In Event: From Classroom to Community: Examining Early Childhood Education Policy and Reform Efforts

Abstract

No known study has examined whether general education teachers’ perceptions differ in classrooms with or without children with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBDs). To address this, this study examined whether kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of academic and social school readiness differ in classrooms with and without children with EBDs. Using nationally representative data, we find that academic perceptions of school readiness are no different for teachers with and without students with EBDs. We do find that social readiness expectations are higher among teachers who teach children with EBDs. The characteristics of teachers and classrooms did not consistently moderate the academic and social readiness expectations already held by teachers in classrooms with students with EBDs.

Authors

• Michael A. Gottfried, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Arya Ansari, University of Virginia