Project Summary
In recognition of race/ethnic-based discrepancies in suspensions and expulsions for Black and Hispanic
children relative to White children, many districts, states, and publicly-funded preschool programs have begun
to implement suspension and expulsion bans. Although such bans may reduce racial/ethnic differences in
exclusionary disciplinary rates, it does not address the underlying biases in teacher judgment that led to these
discrepancies in the first place. Thus, there is a need for research that moves beyond examining
proportionalities in suspensions and expulsions towards a better understanding of the ways in which teachers
evaluate children’s behaviors that serve as the basis for these disciplinary decisions. It may be particularly
important to examine teachers’ behavioral assessments at preschool because the effects of exclusionary
disciplinary actions are believed to be cumulative over time, but the vast majority of research on teachers’
behavioral assessments has been conducted at the K-12 level. Furthermore, the existing studies that have
examined potential biases in preschool teachers’ behavioral assessments have been stymied by small sample
sizes and methodological limitations. Using a large-scale dataset, this study addresses the following research
questions:
1. Do Black and Hispanic children with similar demographics and comparable levels of social-emotional
regulation as White children receive harsher behavioral assessments? What types of behaviors are more
likely to elicit differential assessments?
2. Is teacher-child racial/ethnic match related to teachers’ ratings of children’s behaviors?
3. Are teachers’ behavioral assessments of children at preschool predictive of children’s social-emotional,
suspension, attendance, and achievement outcomes at elementary school?
