Education Week - February 24, 2016 - 25

COMMENTARY

By Denisha Jones
& Diane Levin

s early-childhood educators who prepare
teachers to meet the
needs of all young
children, we became
deeply concerned when
we read a 2011-2012
data collection from
the U.S. Department of
Education's office for civil rights that reported
preschool suspensions for the first time. The
analysis found, among other concerns, that
more than 8,000 preschoolers under age 5
were suspended from public preschools at
least once-and more than 2,500 of those children were suspended more than once.
Preschool helps young children develop the
early foundations for school success. How is
it possible that so many children are being
deprived of this vital learning experience?
How are these suspensions affecting them,
and what can be done about it? As we tried
to answer these questions, we identified six
issues that preschools-and society as a
whole-must address.
1. The children suspended are disproportionately black and male.
Black children make up only 18 percent of
the preschool population but represented 48
percent of preschoolers with more than one
suspension. In addition, 54 percent of all preschoolers are boys, but boys made up 79 percent of suspensions. These figures are cause
for serious concern. Given that black boys
are disproportionately suspended beginning
in preschool, it is important to explore how
this loss of vital school time contributes to the
achievement gap. If we are to help all children achieve academic excellence, we must
work to eliminate practices that contribute to
failure in the earliest school years.
2. Preschool-age children are too
young to benefit from being suspended.
Because of the way young children think,
they have a hard time understanding the
reasons for their suspensions or what they
can do to be more successful when they return to school. They cannot always make logical connections about why they are forbidden
to attend school or reflect on what they can
do differently. And they often blame themselves for what happened and think they are

Should preschool be the
environment where we
punish children for not
having the skills necessary
to succeed, or is it the place
to teach those skills?"
In the current era of increased accountability for public education, federal and state
mandates often result in the teaching of developmentally inappropriate academic skills.
Many publicly funded programs, including
preschools, have mandates from early-childhood-quality rating systems and common-core
kindergarten standards for prescribed, directinstruction approaches, which leave less time
for individualized activities. Yet, early-childhood research shows there are greater gains
for children who attend play-based preschool
programs than for children who receive a
more academic-focused preschool education.
The increased emphasis on academic skills,
often to the exclusion of promoting intellectual and social-emotional learning through
play, means young children have fewer opportunities to learn how to regulate their behavior, become deeply engaged in the learning

process, and develop critical cognitive skills.
6. Economic factors in the wider society are contributing to the problem.
More than 50 percent of children in U.S.
public schools live in poverty. Poverty can
lead to an absence of the kinds of family resources and opportunities that promote school
success. It can lead to underfunded and overcrowded schools and contribute to challenging
behaviors in young children that can provoke
suspensions. While we must help all children
learn to take responsibility for their actions,
suspension does not teach children responsibility; it is a form of punishment. Should preschool be the environment where we punish
children for not having the skills necessary to
succeed, or is it the place to teach those skills?
Our No. 1 priority for preschool should be
helping all children believe that they can engage successfully in a meaningful learning
process. We should instill in them a sense of
trust that the adults in schools are there to
help them learn to deal effectively with whatever problems arise. And we also have to
teach all children how they can contribute to
the development of a more positive world for
themselves and others in their school years
and beyond. If we allow preschool to become
a place where students are punished for behaving the way young children normally do
when problems arise-especially if they have
not yet had opportunities to develop positive
behavior skills-then we are failing to invest
in their potential and are instead investing in
their failure.
We need to commit to creating preschool
environments in which suspensions are not
an option. Instead, our goal must be to provide young children with the kinds of positive supports they need to succeed in the
early-childhood classroom. We must also
work with the families of children who are
at risk, with teacher education and in-service training programs, and with the wider
community to teach preschool educators
how to successfully meet the diverse learning needs of all young children. n
DENISHA JONES is an assistant professor of earlychildhood education at Howard University's School
of Education. She is a former early-childhood
teacher and preschool director. DIANE LEVIN is a
professor of early-childhood education at Wheelock
College and a co-founder of Defending the Early
Years, an advocacy group for early-childhood
education.

Personalization Isn't About Isolation

By Jennifer Carolan

iStockphoto

In a world
where we expect
our Starbucks
drinks
customized, ...
why should our
education be
any different? "

"bad." This can lead to the development of a
negative self-concept.
Without explanation, a suspension is unlikely to produce any desired results, and its
effects can continue beyond the early school
years, putting a child's social and academic
future at greater risk, including compounding the risk factors for that child to become
part of the school-to-prison pipeline.
3. Preschool suspensions can have a
negative impact on families.
Parents have to make alternative arrangements for the care of children who are prevented from attending school. This can pose
a special financial challenge for low-income
parents. If a child cannot go to school, who
provides and pays for child care while the
parent works? Beyond the financial strain,
suspending a child can cause social and emotional harm to the family system. Parents
often blame themselves or their child for the
"failure" without knowing what went wrong or
how to make it better. These factors can lead
to stress at home and stricter controls on children, which rarely produce better outcomes.
4. Giving teachers inadequate resources for addressing difficult behavior can lead to increased suspensions.
Many teachers have not had adequate training to work with children who have diverse
learning abilities, experiences, and needs.
Early-childhood teachers need to understand
developmental milestones, as well as how
children construct knowledge in unique ways
and require hands-on, individualized learning
experiences when they are young. It is not always possible to find teachers who meet these
standards for children in low-income earlychildhood settings.
A report from the Economic Policy Institute
in 2005 studied the workforce qualifications in
early-childhood education and found a decline
in the percentage of the field's teachers and
administrators with college degrees-from 43
percent in 1983-1985 to 30 percent in 20022004-because of low wages and benefits. In
addition, large class sizes or lack of resources
often mean that programs are unable to provide children who have special behavioral
needs with the kinds of support services they
require to move beyond the issues that are
leading to their suspensions.
5. Increased federal and state mandates to teach developmentally inappropriate academic skills put stress on
children.

Leslie Cober-Gentry for Education Week

Preschool Suspensions Do More Harm Than Good

wo thousand fifteen was a
big year for personalized
learning. Nearly every edtech pitch to my venture
capital fund opened with a
black-and-white image of a
1950s one-size-fits-all classroom, and proceeded to tell
the story of how Startup X would fix schools
through personalization. In a world where
we expect our Starbucks drinks customized,
gifts recommended by Amazon.com, and
music playlists tailored to our tastes, why
should our education be any different? Personalization seems like a natural target for

the educational pendulum to swing to after
decades of factory-model schooling.
With all the investment hype and entrepreneurial frenzy, I worry that some might view
personalization as yet another silver bullet
for education. Or worse, if we mistake personalization as the ultimate goal and combine it with the (over)promise of adaptive
technology, we risk transforming our classrooms from the outmoded factory model into
tech-supported cubicles where kids sit alone
for a majority of the day.
This image may seem extreme, but we see
similar things all around us, like families
out to dinner with faces in their phones
rather than looking at each other. I, too,
struggle to find quality, tech-free family

time. Technology is immersive, and all the
more so when personalized. However, when
applied thoughtfully, it is a powerful strategy for connection, integration, and growth.
In fact, the impetus behind the personalization movement was inclusion, not isolation.
Despite claims to the contrary, the shift
from one-size-fits-all to a more personalized approach to learning began with
teachers, not techies. Personalization has
PAGE 27 >

JENNIFER CAROLAN is the co-founding partner
of Reach Capital, a $53 million venture fund that
backs education technology startups. Previously,
she was the managing director and co-founder of
the Seed Fund at the NewSchools Venture Fund.

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