Study links preschool teachers' stress to student expulsions

Conducted by Yale University's Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, the study found that of teachers who reported high job stress, 14.3% also reported one or more expulsions in the last year, while 4.9% of teachers with low job stress reported expulsions.

The expulsions were also linked to high student-teacher ratios -- 12.7% of teachers reported an expulsion in classrooms with 12 or more children per adult, compared with 7.7% of teachers who reported an expulsion when there were fewer than eight children per adult. Teachers who had students in extended-day classes (eight or more hours) also were more likely to recommend expulsion for students.

The study concluded that long days and burdensome workloads are likely to affect a teacher's ability to manage a classroom and deal effectively with children who act out. As a result, the study says, children who would most benefit from preschool are also those most in jeopardy of being expelled.

"If there was a child who needed more help becoming ready for school, it is the child whose behavioral problems are so great as to cause his or her preschool teacher to no longer want that child in class," said study author Walter S. Gilliam, director of the Zigler Center.

The study found that teachers' education levels, possession of early childhood credentials and number of years of teaching young children played little role in expulsions. Teachers who used support services, such as mental health consultants who are skilled in managing child behavior, were half as likely to report expelling a child. But only 23% of preschool teachers reported regular classroom support.

The study is a follow-up to a 2005 Yale report, also by Gilliam, which examined state-funded public preschool programs serving more than 800,000 children in 40 states. It found that preschool children are three times as likely to be expelled than students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The rates are highest for older preschool students, African Americans and boys. California's rate of 7.5 expulsions per 1,000 preschoolers exceeds the national average of 6.7.

Experts said there is no doubt that children are exhibiting more behavioral problems and at younger ages.