Preschoolers at Risk: The Overexpulsion of African American Boys

• In Event: 61.068 - MTCC Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 61.068-2 - From Pipelines to Pathways: Reconceptualizing Schooling for Black Males

Abstract

The rate of preschool expulsion has increased at the federal, state, and local levels. The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education are calling for an end to pre-k expulsion and have written a joint position statement. At a national level, 10.4% of PreK teachers expelled at least one child in the past year due to behavior problems (Gilliam, 2017). Black preschoolers are 3.6 times as likely to receive one or more suspensions relative to White preschoolers (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, 2016). In California, the highest suspension disparity by grade level occurs in early childhood education where Black boys are 5.6 times more likely to be suspended than the state average (Wood, Harris III, & Howard, 2018).

Studies and research have been conducted to understand why Blacks, in particular Black boys, are suspended or expelled at such high rates. Gilliam conducted a study in 2016 where he tracked eye movement of teachers after they were primed to expect challenging behaviors, although none were present. The results showed they watched the Black boy and girl more than the White boy and girl, and between the Black children, watched the Black boy the most. Todd, Thiem, and Neel (2016) believe there is an association between race and perceived threat of aggression. Tenenbaum and Ruck (2007) have found that teachers hold higher expectations for White students than Black students.

The tendency to observe more closely classroom behaviors based on the sex and race of the child may contribute to greater levels of identification of challenging behaviors with Black preschoolers and especially Black boys, which perhaps contributes to the documented sex and race disparities in preschool expulsions and suspensions. This leads to question, Do early educators expect boys, Blacks, and Black boys to misbehave? and Are behavioral expectations by early educators related to biases regarding boys, Blacks and Black boys?

Author

• Deidre Jones, Youth Policy Institute