Study shows when 4-year-olds don't thrive in Head Start classes

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/osu-ssw110915.php

Public Release: 10-Nov-2015
Study shows why 4-year-olds don't thrive in Head Start classes
Mixed-age classrooms hurt academic progress of older children
Ohio State University

Most Head Start classrooms serve children of mixed ages and that hurts the academic growth of older children, a new national study suggests.

Researchers found that 4-year-olds in Head Start classrooms that included higher concentrations of 3-year-olds were up to five months behind in academic development compared with their peers in classrooms with fewer younger children.

That's a problem because, as of 2009, about 75 percent of all Head Start classrooms were mixed-age. Head Start is a federal preschool program that promotes the school readiness of children in low-income families from age 3 to age 5.

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Four-year-olds are often enrolled in classrooms that are less supportive of their academic learning."

The results may also help explain why a 2010 national evaluation of the Head Start program found that it was only modestly effective in helping the academic achievement of 4-year-olds.

"Mixed-age classrooms may be one reason that older children don't seem to benefit as much from Head Start as do younger children," said Arya Ansari, lead author of the study and a graduate student in human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

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