UVa researchers target preschool expulsions

When people think of school expulsion, they don’t think about preschoolers.

But a 2005 study by Yale University shows preschoolers are three times more likely to be expelled from their classrooms as children in kindergarten through high school.

Now a group of University of Virginia researchers is leading a $1.5 million, three-year study in hopes of keeping all children in their preschool classrooms.

“Preschool is a privilege and not a mandate,” said Tina Stanton-Chapman, one of the two UVa professors leading the study. “Schools typically expel children if their bad behavior is chronic and severe.”

Research has shown that 10 percent to 20 percent of all children exhibit challenging behaviors in preschool settings, but the numbers double among children living in poverty or considered at-risk.

Stanton-Chapman and Marti Snell, both professors in UVa’s Curry School of Education, are working on a plan to teach positive behavior that will enable children to achieve lifelong academic success.

“[Expulsion] sends a horrible message to the family … and can create long-term problems for the child in school,” Snell said.

Once a student is expelled, opportunities for them to acquire appropriate social skills may be delayed until kindergarten, at which point behavior problems may be even more entrenched, she said.

The professors, along with a staff of graduate and undergraduate students, have been working with five Head Start programs across the state. The study is funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

The UVa researchers have spent the past two years interviewing and coaching the preschool teachers in a problem-solving approach known as “Positive Behavior Supports,” which has been used with older students.

The first tier of training is defining appropriate behavior for students, offering rewards for good behavior and limiting time when students are not occupied.

“We found that a lot of teachers were doing reactive strategies,” Snell said. “Our coaches work with the teachers and then let them put the strategies in place in their classrooms.”

The strategies work on about 80 percent of the students, Snell said. A second-tier strategy involves teaching social skills to students who have problems in the classroom. This is a strategy, called “Social Pragmatic Storybook Intervention,” that Stanton-Chapman created and has been working with for several years.

The technique uses storybooks, theme toys and instruction to teach children how to initiate play and how to respond, share and cooperate with others.

“Many children don’t have the language or don’t know how to appropriately ask their peers to play,” Stanton-Chapman said. “They may act out instead, taking the toy or hitting to get what they cannot ask for.”

If this strategy doesn’t work, the coaches work with teachers on a third-tier strategy to create an individual plan for the student. This plan identifies the reasons behind behavioral issues and ways to handle and prevent those issues.

During their research, Snell and Stanton-Chapman said they have had to tweak their training methods. For example, they had to accommodate a teacher mandate in Head Start programs for teachers to instruct students in reading and math skills.

“These teachers have a mandate to teach certain things,” Stanton-Chapman said. “If you don’t have teachers so busy, they might be able to do some of the strategies they’re not able to do now.”

The professors hope to obtain additional funding to continue their research and work with the Head Start teachers. They also hope to keep track of the students to see how successful they are in their school careers.

“There is clear research indicating that children’s problem behavior not resolved in preschool continues into kindergarten,” Snell said. “If it is not resolved by third grade, problems are often chronic and extend into adulthood.”