REDUCING EXPULSION & SUSPENSION BY COACHING EARLY EDUCATORS (RESCUEE)

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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.