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Preschool children with relatively poor language skills improve more if they are placed in classrooms with high-achieving students, a new study has found [Child Development, 82 (6): 1768-77].

Researchers found that children with relatively poor language skills either did not improve over the course of one academic year or actually lost ground in development of language skills when they were placed with other low-achieving students.

The results have important implications because many preschool programs in the United States are targeted to children in poverty, who may exhibit lags in their development of language skills, said lead author Laura Justice, PhD, professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State University in Columbus.

"The way preschool works in the United States, we tend to cluster kids who have relatively low language skills in the same classrooms, and that is not good for their language development," Dr. Justice said. "We need to pay more attention to the composition of preschool classrooms."

She conducted the study with Yaacov Petscher, PhD, and Christopher Schatschneider, PhD, of Florida State University, and Andrew Mashburn, PhD, of the University of Virginia.

More than 80 percent of American children participate in preschool, Dr. Justice said. About half attend preschool programs that are subsidized through state and/or federal dollars, the majority of which only enroll children in poverty. Because children in poverty are at increased risk of poor language skills, those with low skills often are clustered together.

The study involved 338 children enrolled in 49 preschool classrooms. The children completed a variety of standardized measures of language skills in the fall of the academic year. The measures examined grammar skills, vocabulary, and the ability to discuss what was happening in a wordless picture book. The measures were repeated in the spring.

The researchers also assessed the instructional quality of the classrooms to ensure that differences in reading skills simply were not the result of the quality of teaching.

The results showed that children with low initial language skills who were placed in the lowest ability classes tended to lose ground over the course of the academic year. However, low-skilled students in average ability classes improved their language skills between the fall and spring.

High-ability students don't suffer by being placed in classrooms with students of lower ability, Dr. Justice noted. They improved their scores whether they were in classrooms of low or average ability.

"Children with high language abilities don't seem to be affected by the other kids in their class," she said.

The researchers also found that the reference status of the students - their standing relative to the other students in their classroom - mattered. For example, students with the lowest ability in the low-ability classrooms improved their language skills over the course of the year, presumably because the other students in the class had greater language skills in comparison.

These results cannot explain how peers affect the language skills of preschoolers, Dr. Justice stated. It may be through direct interaction among the children, or it may involve how teacher expectations and efficacy differ depending on the composition of their classrooms.

However, the results suggest that tracking students into high- and low-achievement classrooms may be short-changing the students who most need help.

"If we really want to help lift kids out of poverty and use preschool as a way to make that happen, we need to reconsider how we provide that education," Dr. Justice said. "Classrooms that blend students from different backgrounds are the best way to provide the boost that poor students need."

The study was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education.