SBP:MCA: Understanding School Professionals Disciplinary Decisions and Black Children

被停学的孩子学业成绩较低的可能性更大，与刑事司法系统的接触也更多。不幸的是，学前班的停学率急剧上升。此外，学前班停学的增加对黑人儿童产生了不成比例的影响。为了减少停学，科学家们需要更好地了解对黑人儿童和成人决策的看法是如何结合起来影响受到这些纪律处分的学生人数的。候选人的职业生涯中期发展（MCA）培训将对发展心理学、社会心理学和学校心理学领域的多学科研究产生直接影响，并推进科学理论和对人类行为与法律之间联系的理解。尽管司法部和美国教育部制定了关于学校纪律的政策声明，但学前班仍在继续使用停学的做法。研究表明，大多数被停学的都是黑人孩子。这一领域的大多数研究都是针对学龄儿童进行的；然而，在学前教育领域存在着显著的差距。因此，本项目以归因和社会认知理论为基础，将包括：1)对该领域的研究进行系统回顾和文献计量分析；2)制作学龄前儿童行为的视频和小插曲；3)考察幼儿教师对学生种族化认知的程度和强度；4)对幼儿教师、职前教师和职前学校心理学家进行实地调查，了解他们在建议暂停学前班时是否考虑了儿童的即时行为和儿童的长期后果。这项与学校专业人员合作的工作将对社区产生重大影响，因为它有可能减少学龄前儿童停学的频率，并减少从学校到监狱的管道。此外，通过该MCA项目获得的知识将用于制定干预措施，以帮助学校专业人员减轻学龄前儿童的停学和开除。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Children who are suspended from school are more likely to have low academic achievement and increased contact with the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, rates of suspension in preschool have increased dramatically. Additionally, this rise in preschool suspensions has had a disproportionate impact on Black children. To decrease suspensions, scientists need a better understanding of how perceptions of Black children and adult decision-making combine to impact the number of students subject to these disciplinary practices. The candidate’s Mid-Career Advancement (MCA) training will have immediate impact on multidisciplinary research in the fields of developmental psychology, social psychology, and school psychology as well as advancing scientific theory and understanding of the connections between human behavior and law.Despite policy statements developed by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education on school discipline, the use of suspensions in preschools continues to be used. Research indicates that a majority of these suspensions are incurred by Black children. A majority of research in this area has been conducted with school-aged children; however, a significant gap exists in the preschool domain. As such, this project, which is grounded in attribution and social cognitive theories will include: 1) conducting a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of research in this area; 2) developing videos and vignettes of preschool children’s’ behavior; 3) examining the degree and intensity of preschool teachers’ racialized perceptions of students; and 4) implementation of field research with preschool teachers, pre-service teachers, and pre-service school psychologists to understand if they consider the immediate behavior of the child and the long-term outcomes of children when they recommend suspension from preschool. This work with school-based professionals will have a significant impact on communities given that it has the potential to lessen preschool suspension frequencies and reduce the school-to-prison pipeline. Additionally, knowledge gained through this MCA project will be used to develop interventions to help school professionals to alleviate suspensions and expulsions in preschool-aged children.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.