Inclusive Early Childhood Education Faculty Co-authors Book on Classroom Management Practices
April 23, 2026
Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services/George Mason University
Leslie La Croix, assistant professor in the Inclusive Early Childhood Education Program at George Mason University, co-authored a book titled From Compliance to Co-Regulation: Revisioning Guidance and Behavior Management to Support Children’s Social and Emotional Development within Classroom Communities. The book is the result of an Open Educational Resource (OER) grant from VIVA.
This 12-chapter, peer-reviewed textbook leverages strengths-based perspectives and problem-solving approaches to support children’s meaningful engagement in classroom communities. The text offers a timely response to teachers’ intensified concerns regarding children’s classroom behaviors and fills a gap in available OER literature informing teachers’ behavior management practices. The text counters punitive behavior management practices that diminish a child’s sense of belonging and well-being and underscores nurturing positive relationships as a central aspect of educators’ work in schools.
From Compliance to Co-regulation presents a “Community Model for Classroom Management” which “shifts away from compliance-oriented management structures and instead advocates for using tiered systems of support to develop social and emotional skills using a problem-solving approach.” The text explores universal, strategic, and intensive behavior management supports that promote the well-being of all individuals sharing and caring for each other in warm classroom communities.
La Croix commented on why she decided to co-author the book and how she thinks preservice teachers and teachers in the field will benefit from reading it. She stated, “This is actually the second textbook I have co-authored with the support of VIVA Open Educational Resource funding. For me, generating OER materials is a matter of social justice. Textbooks are expensive. Integrating free, high-quality texts into higher education contexts removes access barriers, which promotes content mastery and supports degree completion.”
La Croix explained that this particular text, From Compliance to Co-Regulation, meets Virginia Department of Education licensure standards by focusing on the essential classroom management content knowledge and skills preservice teachers need to develop to be effective instructional leaders in their classrooms. She added, “My co-authors and I hope that it will be widely used by other teacher preparation programs. To support teacher educators’ future integration of the text, we have also developed complementary ancillary materials for each chapter, which includes PowerPoint slide decks, test banks, and classroom activities. We anticipate these materials will be added to the VIVA site this summer.”
In her other remarks, La Croix pointed out that this text is not just for preservice teachers, but it is for educators in the field too. “Practicing teachers, and instructional coaches also need timely access to evidence-based resources,” she stated. “Refining how we, as educators, work to establish safe, warm, and engaging classroom communities is a lifelong practice, and this text serves as a resource for educators to return to time and again.”
The issues addressed in the book include a wide range of topics of importance to early childhood education teachers such as classroom design practices that promote productive learning communities; how tiered systems of support can be used for behavioral interventions in education settings; using data to inform decision-making to meaningfully engage students who present with behavioral challenges; identifying ways of developing and nurturing positive student-teacher relationships; and many other subjects that center on effective classroom management.
In considering the text’s development process La Croix emphasized, “I think another unique point about our text was the extensive peer review process we engaged in to ensure the practices and strategies we examined throughout the text are well recognized in the field. To that end, we invited practicing teachers, social workers, school psychologists, and special educators to review the text for clarity as well as content. In this way, we ensured the relationship-based, problem-solving practices outlined in the text for supporting the learner’s meaningful engagement are well-researched and used by professionals across disciplines.”
Each chapter of the book opens with a vignette that reflects real experiences teachers routinely navigate in the field. The vignettes are followed by an introductory text that outlines key topics along with corresponding chapter section numbers that makes it easier for the reader to identify specific sections of interest. “Pause and Consider” boxes embedded throughout the text encourage the reader to reflect on the content presented and how it relates to their own understanding of classroom management, child development, and other aspects of student behavior specific to young learners in preschool to third grade. Book chapters also include boxes titled “Key Points” that succinctly summarize the key takeaways of the text. Collectively, these components are designed to reinforce the reader’s comprehension of the content and to encourage them to think about how it relates to their own instructional, relationship-building, and problem-solving teaching practices.
The book may be accessed digitally for free by visiting the publisher website.