REDUCING EXPULSION & SUSPENSION BY COACHING EARLY EDUCATORS (RESCUEE)

该提案是对儿童保育研究学者资助机会公告的回应，该声明侧重于支持“增加获得高质量护理的机会”的研究，特别是“多样化的低收入家庭”。具体地说，这项提议的目的是通过让从事低收入家庭儿童工作的早期教育工作者具备应对早期挑战性行为的能力和信心来增加机会。 学龄前儿童，特别是那些来自低收入家庭和具有挑战性行为的儿童，正在经历高比率的开除和停学(Gilliam，2005；Skiba等人，2014；美国教育部，2016)。为了解决这一担忧，美国卫生与公众服务部和美国教育部(2016)发布了一份联合政策声明，建议早期教育工作者应该拥有一套强大的技能，以促进儿童的社交、情绪和行为健康，并适当地应对挑战性行为。 该项目的目标是：1)了解学龄前排斥管教做法(即排斥和停学)的现状，从而了解专业发展和支持的必要性；2)建立早期教育工作者在促进儿童社会情绪发展和应对挑战性行为方面的能力和信心；3)促进有挑战性行为的学龄前儿童的社会情绪和行为健康；以及4)减少在幼儿环境中使用驱逐和停学做法。 指导本项目的研究问题是：1)教师使用排他性管教实践的项目、教师和儿童特征是什么？2)教师需要哪些支持和专业发展领域来实施更积极主动的行为管理实践？3)专业发展是否提高了教师预防和积极应对儿童挑战性行为的能力和信心？4)专业发展如何影响教师的压力水平？5)为早期教育工作者提供的专业发展是否改善了儿童的行为和社会情绪结果？6)教师在专业发展后使用排他性管教实践的可能性降低了吗？7)教师的专业发展经历是什么？ 为了解决这些问题，本项目将使用混合方法，包括定性设计和单一案例设计。从访谈、观察、问卷和评分表收集的数据将被定性、定量和直观地分析。该项目的成果将加深外地对专业发展作为预防、减少和消除学龄前开除和停学的具有成本效益的方式的理解。

The proposal responds to the Child Care Research Scholars Funding Opportunity Announcement focused on supporting research addressing “increasing access to high quality care,” particularly for “diverse low-income families.” Specifically, the aim of this proposal is to increase access by equipping early educators who work with children from low-income families with competence and confidence in addressing early challenging behaviors. Preschoolers, particularly those from low-income families and with challenging behaviors, are experiencing high rates of expulsion and suspension (Gilliam, 2005; Skiba et al., 2014; U.S. Department of Education, 2016). To address this concern, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education (2016) issued a joint policy statement recommending that early educators should have a strong set of skills to promote children’s social-emotional and behavioral health and appropriately address challenging behaviors. The goals of this project are to: 1) Gain an understanding of the current status of preschool exclusionary discipline practices (i.e., exclusion and suspension) and thus the need for professional development and support; 2) Build early educators’ competence and confidence in facilitating children’s social-emotional development and addressing challenging behaviors; 3) Promote social-emotional and behavioral health of preschoolers with challenging behaviors; and 4) Reduce the use of expulsion and suspension practices in early childhood settings. The research questions guiding this project are: 1) What are the program, teacher, and child characteristics to which teachers attribute their use of exclusionary discipline practices? 2) What supports and professional development areas do teachers need to implement more proactive and preventive behavior management practices? 3) Does professional development improve teachers’ competency and confidence in addressing children’s challenging behaviors preventatively and positively? 4) How does professional development affect teachers’ stress level? 5) Does professional development provided to early educators improve children’s behavioral and social-emotional outcomes? 6) Are teachers less likely to use exclusionary discipline practices after professional development? and 7) What are teachers’ experiences of having professional development? To address these questions, this project will use mixed methods, including qualitative and single-case designs. Data collected from interviews, observations, questionnaires, and rating scales will be qualitatively, quantitatively, and visually analyzed. The outcomes of this project will further the field’s understanding of professional development as a cost-effective way to prevent, reduce, and eliminate preschool expulsion and suspension.