Classroom age composition and rates of change in school readiness for children enrolled in Head Start

Classroom Age Composition and Vocabulary Development Among At-Risk Preschoolers

“…The authors therefore contended that mixed-age preschool classrooms may not benefit children’s development, particularly in the area of language development; however, a limitation of this study is that children’s language skills were not directly examined. Bell, Greenfield, and Bulotsky-Shearer (2013) replicated and enhanced the methodological approach used by Moller et al They found that classroom age composition was not associated with low-income preschool children’s growth in multiple domains of school readiness, including language and literacy, early math, social and emotional skills, and approaches to learning. Similar to Moller et al, this research also used an indirect measure, with children’s skills rated by their teachers.…”

What Preschool Classroom Experiences Are Associated With Whether Children Improve in Visuomotor Integration?

“…In an experimental study, Bailey, Burchinal, and McWilliam (1993) randomly assigned preschoolers to either a mixed-age or a single-age classroom and found that mixed-age classrooms helped relatively younger children gain on a range of school readiness skills from ages 2 to 4 but that the reverse was true after 4 years of age. Further complicating the story, later studies using large and diverse samples showed either null effects or negative effects of being in a mixed-age classroom for preschoolers of all ages (Bell, Greenfield, & Bulotsky-Shearer, 2013;Moller, Forbes-Jones, & Hightower, 2008). Relevant to the current inquiry, Moller et al (2008) found that compared to children enrolled in a same-age class, those enrolled in a mixed-age class made fewer gains in motor skills as reported by their teachers.…”

“…We divided multiple classroom experience measures into three broad categories: classroom characteristics, teacher characteristics, and observed teacher-child interactions. Prior work suggested that children in mixed-age classrooms might make fewer gains (e.g., Bell et al, 2013;Moller et al, 2008), but beyond that we made few specific hypotheses about classroom and teacher characteristics. Based on the cognitive underpinnings of visuomotor integration and evidence that cognitive skills are linked to organizational and instructional teacher-child interactions (Cameron & Morrison, 2011;Mashburn et al, 2008), we expected that preschoolers who were exposed to higher quality teacher-child interactions would improve relatively more in visuomotor integration.…”

Revisiting the Age-Old Question: What Are the Effects of Relative Age and Gender on Young Children in School Settings?

“…With greater insights and attention to differences caused by birthdate and gender, educational communities would better serve these disadvantaged children. The previously mentioned research demonstrates that these effects appear to be robust, cross-cultural, and present in areas such as Canada (Biemiller & Cantalini-Williams, 2000;Cantalini, 1987;Janus & Duku, 2007;Riley, 2014), the United States (Bell et al, 2013, Bulotsky-Shearer et al, 2012Furlong & Quirk, 2011;Winsler et al, 2012), Turkey (Ensar & Keskin, 2014), Korea (Son et al, 2013), and Australia (Boardman, 2006). Further, the described age and gender differences persist over time (Furlong & Quirk, 2011).…”

“…Maria Cantalini-Williams, Jessica Perron, and Andrew Biemiller In many jurisdictions, as is currently the case in Ontario, children are entering school at an earlier age and are attending school for longer periods of time than in previous decades (Bell, Greenfield, & Bulotsky-Shearer, 2013;Bulotsky-Shearer, Wen, Faria, HahsVaughn, & Korfmacher, 2012;Ensar & Keskin, 2014). In Canada, for most school systems, admission and eligibility are determined solely by birthdate.…”