Mixing Ages in Head Start Stunts Academic Progress

AUSTIN, Texas -  Four-year-olds in the nation's largest preschool program fare worse with 3-year-olds in their classrooms, according to new research that shows a common practice in most Head Start programs may stunt children's learning. Three-fourths of Head Start classes teach 3- and 4-year-old children together, but a new study, led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, found that older children make smaller academic gains on average when taught with younger preschoolers. In the classrooms where the two age groups were evenly split, 4-year-olds in the study were an average of nearly five months of academic development behind their 4-year-old peers who were in classrooms without 3-year-olds. The effect is strong enough, researchers say, to suggest that mixed-age classrooms are preventing some children from starting kindergarten ready to learn math and reading. "We may be selling Head Start children short if we put 3- and 4-year-old children together," said Elizabeth Gershoff, an associate professor of human development and family sciences. "We've known for a couple of years that 4-year-olds don't perform as well in Head Start as other children, and this may be a big reason why." The study, which used data from more than 2,800 children nationwide in nearly 500 Head Start classrooms, is due to be published in the journal Psychological Science . Head Start is the nation's largest federal preschool program, and more than 30 million low-income children, ages 3 to 5, have participated in it during the past 50 years.