This new program investigates what may be driving high rates of suspensions of poor children of color in early childhood classrooms. Our prelimnary work suggests that, aside from the important issue of unconscious bias, some problems arise from children’s lack of experience in using language to mediate behavior and and the failure to provide teachers with alternatives to suspension -- for a throrough examination of the latter, check out the 2014 edition of our Good Schools Seminar on Creating Safe & Supportive Schools.

We are beginning to explore these questions through a variety of activities, including  focus groups with early childhood educators, commissioning a research review on the links between language and behavior in the early years and consulting with collaborators, including Susan Neuman at NYU and the Campaign for Grade Level Reading.