Computerizing Social-Emotional Assessment for School Readiness: First Steps toward an Assessment Battery for Early Childhood Settings

The transition into formal schooling is a crucial foundation that can set children on a cycle of success or failure in both academic and social domains. A child’s abilities to express healthy emotions, understand emotions of self and others, regulate emotion, attention, and behavior, make good decisions regarding social problems, and engage in a range of prosocial behaviors, all work together to promote a successful school experience. However, many children have deficits in these skills by school entry, and educators lack the requisite tools to identify, track and assess skills these children need to learn. Thus, because social-emotional learning (SEL) is so crucial, assessment tools to pinpoint children’s skills and progress are vitally necessary. Previous work by the authors and other researchers has led to the development of strong assessment tools; however, these tools are often developed solely for research use, not practitioner application. In the following, using our assessment battery as an example, we will discuss the steps necessary to adapt SEL assessment for computer-based administration and optimal utility in early childhood education programs

Falling Through the Cracks of Early Intervention and Prevention: Missed Smoking Cessation Referrals for Mothers in Early Head Start

Introduction. Smoking rates have decreased overall but smoking during pregnancy remains a challenge with impacts to mother, child, and family. Referrals are a critical component in accessing cessation, yet research identifies several barriers to access. Early Head Start (EHS) is one avenue for referrals, and we wanted to understand which characteristics describe those who have received prenatal smoking cessation referrals from EHS. Methods. This project utilized secondary data from the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (N = 144). We conducted three hierarchical logistic regressions based on the following characteristics pulled from the literature—demographics (e.g., race, ethnicity, age, education, marital status, and partner at home), smoking behavior, and accessibility (e.g., language, location, siblings in EHS, length of time (LOT) in EHS, and program type)— removing non-significant variables at each stage of the hierarchy. Results. Results indicated no significant differences in referral rates across demographics (ps > .32). Results also showed smoking during pregnancy predictive of referral receipt (OR = 10.35, p < .05). Lastly, results showed longer LOTs with EHS (OR = 4.41, p < .01) and siblings in EHS (OR = 10.98, p < .05) significantly associated with referral receipt. Discussion. We found equity among referrals, consistent with EHS’s anti-racist foundation. We found mothers only reporting smoking history were missed. Finally, we found when EHS knows about a pregnancy, either from early referral to EHS or from other children receiving services, the referral mechanism is most successful. Future work should include an emphasis on recruiting earlier in gestation

Benefits of Prenatal Enrollment in Early Head Start on Successful Smoking Cessation

Despite known negative health effects, many women continue smoke during pregnancy, and many do not access available cessations supports. In a population of low-income mothers with children enrolled in Early Head Start (EHS) we explored which demographic, smoking behavior, and treatment access characteristics were associated with being referred for smoking cessation services. Findings highlighted equity among referrals, consistent with EHS’s anti-racist foundation. We found mothers only reporting smoking history were missed compared to mothers who reported current smoking behaviors, which presents an important opportunity for prevention work, given relapse rates. Finally, we found when EHS knows about a pregnancy, either from early referral to EHS or from other children receiving services, the referral mechanism is most successful. Implications for EHS include an emphasis on recruiting earlier in gestation

Predictors of Parent-Teacher Relationship Quality in Head Start Classrooms

The ability for parents and teachers to work together serves as a foundation for a collaborative and effective parent-teacher relationship (Clarke et al., 2009). The quality of this relationship contributes to children’s school readiness and social competence (Halgunseth et al., 2009). Identifying factors that are related to positive parent-teacher relationships in early childhood settings is necessary to support positive child outcomes. The current study aims to identify teacher characteristics that may be related to effective parent-teacher relationships by exploring predictors of parents’ comfort in disclosing family information and parents’ perceptions of their classroom teachers’ practices and responsiveness. Professional characteristics (i.e. education, training, and professional development) and demographic background has the potential to increase awareness and understanding of family backgrounds (King et al., 2003) and may predict variability in classroom practices. Such results would support future interventions and provide insight on continued professional development efforts on supporting the parent-teacher partnership

Head Start Parents’ Views on Family-Centered Care: A Research to Practice Summary

This study looked at components of Head Start parent-teacher relationships: teachers’ knowledge and use of family-centered practices. Specifically, the purpose of the research was to examine the perspective of Head Start parents and to better understand their classroom experiences as they relate to family-centered care. Family-centered classroom practices and family-specific knowledge are two important components of developing effective parent-teacher relationships. The study used a national sample of Head Start teachers and parents. Results suggest that parents and teachers tend to agree consistently on their perceptions of family-centered practices and responsiveness, across a variety of classroom settings. These results point to the importance of continuing to support teachers’ professional and family-specific substantive knowledge in order to promote positive relationships with families

Racial Disproportionality in the School-to-Prison Pipeline

For Black children, experiences with school discipline are often not an opportunity to learn, they are a pathway into the criminal justice system. At every step along the way, this pathway is faster and even more consequential for Black students than for their White peers. Implicit and explicit biases result in Black children’s behavior being managed more harshly, perceived as more dangerous, and more often deemed sufficient to justify expulsion in comparison to their White peers. There are formal and informal pathways for removal, starting in preschool, and the consequences for Black children in particular are stark. Policies often allow racial disproportionality in the school-to-prison pipeline to be ignored, or even facilitated. This chapter reviews the factors driving disproportionality in the pipeline and the current policy landscape. It also identifies ways in which schools, districts, and preservice teacher preparation programs can disrupt and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.</p

Understanding Preschool Teachers’ Emotional Support as a Function of Center Climate

There is great emphasis recently on improving the quality of early childhood education in the United States. Within quality rating improvement systems, classroom quality is often reported at the center or program levels. Yet little is known about teaching quality at the center level or the influence of center characteristics on teaching quality. Specifically, this study examines the extent to which the quality of emotional support provided by the teacher is associated with characteristics of the center (e.g., prior turnover rates) and center director (e.g., education, management practices). Findings from Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) 2009 data indicated that emotional support dimensions were differentially predicted by characteristics of the center and the director, including prior teacher turnover rate and director job satisfaction. However, highly regulated indicators of center quality (e.g., student:teacher ratio) did not substantially explain emotional support

How teachers' perceptions of the parent–teacher relationship affect children's risk for early childhood expulsion

Rates of expulsion from early care and education settings (e.g., childcare and preschool programs) exceed those in K-12, and relatively little is known of how to prevent such disciplinary decisions. In addition, expulsion disproportionately affects children of color, especially boys. The present study explores a potential protective strategy existent in all early care and education settings, the parent–teacher relationship. Surveys with early childhood teachers (N = 295) outline the association between teachers' perceptions of the parent–teacher relationship and a child's risk for expulsion. Findings indicate that teachers' perceptions of high-quality parent–teacher relationships are related to a lower risk for expulsion for children who have not been expelled, with the strongest association found for Black children. In contrast, for children identified as previously expelled, we found no association between teachers' perceptions of the parent–teacher relationship and future expulsion risk. Each finding will be described in detail with an eye towards implications and intervention

How Can Teachers Best Support Young Children's Emotional Competence?

The Early Investments Policy Initiative team presented findings from a systematic review of the literature regarding practices to promote young children's emotional competencies at the American Educational Research Association conference in New York City on April 13, 2018. Expectations for young children's emotional competencies are part of the social and emotional learning (SEL) standards that all 50 states have adopted, including Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards that expect children to understand and effectively communicate emotions and express them in situationally-appropriate ways. As in many other states, Illinois teachers must align their curricula and assessments to these standards as part of the state's Excelerate system, which assigns medal levels (licensed, bronze, silver, gold) to all licensed centers and its Preschool for All funding focused on helping all young children be ready for school.The evidence base for specific teaching practices to support these standards is thin, according to a key finding from "Building the Evidence Base for Social-Emotional Teaching Practices in Early Childhood" by IGPA faculty member Rachel Gordon, IGPA visiting scholar Katherine Zinsser, and UIC graduate student Xue Jiang.The authors systematically identified published studies that had examined such practices and their relationship to children's emotion knowledge, expression and management. They found just 29 U.S. based studies focused on these topics. Applying state-of-the-art meta-analysis procedures to these studies' results revealed a small overall effect (in scientific terms, a standard deviation increase in practices was associated with less than a tenth of a standard deviation difference in emotional competencies). The studies also had important limitations, such as being based on small convenience samples, primarily including non-Hispanic White middle-class children, and using designs that identified correlational rather than causal associations. The studies were also limited in how they measured practices and competencies, with studies of different competencies tending to rely on different strategies with varying limitations (e.g., direct assessments versus parent or teacher reports).Studies of two SEL curricula had a moderate-sized effect (about two-fifths of a standard deviation in size), but these studies were also limited, being authored by curricular developers, sometimes having teachers rate children's competencies, and intervening to raise children's social as well as emotional development. The authors conclude that more and better designed studies are needed in order to determine practices that support young children's developing emotional competencies. Such work should be a high priority given teachers need support in knowing how to address state standards in these specific areas. One effort currently underway, for instance, is the EMOTERS project, a $1.4 million effort funded by the Institute of Education Sciences in which members of the IGPA Early Investments Project team (and collaborators from George Mason University) are developing a new measure of teachers' supports for young children's emotional development.</div

Parents’ socialization of preschool-aged children's emotion skills: A meta-analysis using an emotion-focused parenting practices framework

Children make dramatic gains in their abilities to understand, express, and regulate their feelings before entering kindergarten. Despite decades of research into parents’ socialization of young children's emotion skills, the field lacks a formal synthesis of past studies testing the associations between specific emotion-focused parenting practices and young children's emerging emotion skills. The present meta-analysis addresses this gap. This study relies on a framework that organizes parent emotion socialization into three core emotion-focused parenting practices (modeling, responding, and instructing) and connects these practices to children's emotion skills (knowledge, expression, and regulation). Over 1600 abstracts were screened. Articles meeting inclusion criteria (N = 24) reported that parents’ modeling of, responding to, and instructing about emotions were positively correlated with children's emotion skills, but only sometimes significantly, and effect sizes were small (ranging from r¯=.05 to r¯=.19 and β¯=.05 to β¯=.12) and studies mostly relied on bivariate cross-sectional associations. This review also revealed several ways in which the literature can be strengthened, including through the use of longitudinal and experimental designs, reliance on common measures, and inclusion of diverse representative samples. This study concludes with a discussion of these findings’ implications for future research, especially the need for improved reporting standards and increased attention to understudied aspects of emotion-focused parenting