Dissertation
The predictive relationships between Head Start teacher background and beliefs and their ratings of children's externalizing behaviors: investigating factors related to suspension and expulsion in early childhood
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Drexel University
Sep 2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001332
Abstract
While high quality ECE programs can help all children acquire academic and social-emotional skills, there are persistent disparities in access to these learning environments. One source of the disparities is children being suspended or expelled. In the 2017-18 school year, Black students represented 15 percent of student enrollment but 38 percent of students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions. Young students who are expelled or suspended are up to 10 times more likely to drop out of high school, experience academic failure and grade retention, and face incarceration than those who are not. While there has been a focus on children's socio-emotional deficits and SES as drivers of problem behaviors, little is known about which teacher characteristics are likely to predict how they rate children's behaviors. Teachers are important agents in helping to address school discipline disparities. The purpose of this study was to examine whether teacher background and beliefs predict their reports of aggressive and hyperactive child behavior, which in turn may influence which children are recommended for punitive exclusionary discipline. This study used secondary data analysis to examine nationally representative Head Start teacher and child data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey, 2014. 1,850 children and their 246 teachers were included in the analytic sample. Variations in teacher-reported child behavior scores were examined by child race/ethnicity and sex. Hierarchical Linear Models (accounting for grouping of children into classrooms/teachers) were used to examine teacher characteristics (highest grade, field of highest degree, beliefs about developmentally appropriate practice) and teacher beliefs and attitudes about family engagement (including family-teacher communication, teacher respect for families, and teacher family-specific knowledge) to determine whether these factors predicted child externalizing behavior ratings. Teachers' field of highest degree, beliefs about developmentally appropriate practice, and attitudes and beliefs about family engagement were significant predictors of teacher ratings of children's externalizing behaviors. Policy implications and recommendation include increasing training and supports for teachers and ECE leaders around family engagement and social emotional development as well as recommendations for diversifying and retaining the ECE workforce. Keywords: Head Start, teacher ratings, problem behaviors, preschool, behavior, discipline, teacher beliefs
Metrics
78 File views/ downloads
107 Record Views
Details
- Title
- The predictive relationships between Head Start teacher background and beliefs and their ratings of children's externalizing behaviors
- Creators
- Annalee N. Kelly
- Contributors
- Dominic F. Gullo (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- x, 129 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education (1997-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991019104705804721