Monitoring community progress on School Readiness :

1. Monitoring community progress on School Readiness: The Early Development Instrument World Bank, May 2008

2. Early years matter: They set the stage for further development

3. Overview • School readiness and the EDI • School readiness as a child-level indicator • Uses of the EDI data • International data

4. Readiness to learn concept All children are born ready to learn: the neurosystem is pre-programmed to develop various skills and neuropathways, depending on the experience it receives.

5. Readiness for school Refers to the child’s ability to meet the task demands of school, such as: • being comfortable exploring and asking questions, • listening to the teacher, • playing and working with other children, • remembering and following rules. In short, it is the ability to benefit from the educational activities that are provided by the school.

6. School readiness is an indicator of child development in a community • Reliably reflects a broad concept of development • Population level indicator • Useful at macro and micro-levels

7. Domains of school readiness • Physical health and well-being • Social competence • Emotional maturity • Language and cognitive development • Communication skills and general knowledge

8. Early Development Instrument (EDI) • Allows to put child development outcome at the same indicator level as birth rate or survival • Completed by teacher (early childhood educator) • 104 items grouped into five domains • Context sections relevant to the local context • Items adaptable to the local language/context

9. Purposes of the EDI • Report on populations of children in different communities • Monitor populations of children over time • Predict how children will do in elementary school

10. Physical Health and Well-being SUBDOMAINS • Physical readiness for school day - e.g., arriving to school hungry • Physical independence - e.g., having well-coordinated movements • Gross and fine motor skills - e.g., being able to manipulate objects

11. Social Competence SUBDOMAINS • Overall social competence - e.g., ability to get along with other children • Responsibility and respect - e.g., accept responsibility for actions • Approaches to learning - e.g., working independently • Readiness to explore new things - e.g., eager to explore new items

12. Emotional Maturity SUBDOMAINS • Pro-social and helping behaviour - e.g., helps other children in distress • Anxious and fearful behaviour - e.g., appears unhappy or sad • Aggressive behaviour - e.g., gets into physical fights • Hyperactivity and inattention - e.g., is restless

13. Language and Cognitive Development SUBDOMAINS • Basic literacy - e.g., able to write own name • Interest in literacy/numeracy and memory - e.g., interested in games involving numbers • Advanced literacy - e.g., able to read sentences • Basic numeracy - e.g., able to count to 20

14. Communication Skills and General Knowledge (No subdomains) Ability to clearly communicate one’s own needs and understand others • Clear articulation • Active participation in story-telling (not necessarily with good grammar and syntax) • Interest in general knowledge about the world

15. Reliability and validity

16. Reliability and validity • Basic psychometric properties (Janus & Offord 2007) • Predictive validity (data from Quebéc, BC, and Ontario, also LSAC) • Cultural relevance and validity

17. Factors increasing the vulnerability risk • Child health (low) 2.35 • Gender (boy) 2.32 • Income (low) 2.02 • Family status (not intact) 1.83 • Age (younger half) 1.36 • Literacy (looking at books) 1.35 • Parent smoking 1.29 Janus & Duku, 2007

18. Predictor of Grade 1 achievement % variance (Total) • EDI to Grade 1 33.8% (33.8%) • EDI above age, sex, SES 23% (36%) • EDI above direct cognitive, language and “readiness” screen 5% (50%) Source: Forget-Dubois et al. 2007

19. The Cost of Vulnerability: Percent ‘Failing to meet expectations’ & Percent ‘Not Passing’ on Grade 4 FSA’s # of Vulnerabilities % Failing to meet % Not passing (kindergarten) expectations Numeracy 0 7.5 12.3 1 11.8 22.2 2-3 18.7 33.8 4-5 27.5 55.6 Reading 0 13.6 17.8 1 26.7 33.9 2-3 29.5 43.1 4-5 48.4 68.3 Hertzman 2008

20. Vulnerability on EDI and Grade 6 outcomes N of domains with low scores: Percentage of Grade 6 students not meeting provincial standards in relation to number of vulnerabilities in Kindergarten (EDI) TDSB, 2007

21. School readiness is an indicator of child development in a community • Reflects a broad concept of development • Population level indicator • Useful at macro and micro-levels

22. Some Canadian data on the EDI • Not ready: children who score low in one or more of the five domains of the EDI • “Low” - in the lowest 10 percent of the population within their site • Specific for domain • Specific for site • Norms available for comparison

23. Readiness to Learn at School by Family Income (N=2039) % 31.9 29.1 23.1 13.7 Source: NLSCY/UEY 1999-2000; EDI 1999-2000

24. School readiness and Grade 3 by neighbourhood affluence % below standard in Grade 3 in:

25. % vulnerable in kindergarten % Neighbourhood affluence

26. School readiness is an indicator of child development in a community • Reflects a broad concept of development • Population level indicator • Useful at macro and micro-levels

27. Information from the EDI • Average scores for groups of children in five domains/16 subdomains • Percentages of children who are at risk for not doing well in school: • for each domain • overall

28. Percentage of Students Vulnerable on One or More scales of the EDI Based on Provincial cutoffs, Wave 1

29. Percentage of Students Vulnerable on One or More Scales of the EDI Based on Provincial cutoffs, Wave 2

31. The AEDI community planning process 2. Assessing the local distribution of children’s developmental vulnerability 1. Identifying areas of particular need e.g. Mission Australia funds 3 year play group, language program & mums group at school 3. Community asset mapping 4. Mobilising community action

34. Ways to use the EDI - basic info • Aggregation of results • Macro-level: global picture for a city, state, country • Micro-level: schools, neighbourhoods, non-geographic communities

35. Ways to use the EDI - comparisons • Geographic areas • Identified groups • Groups based on program attendance • Comparisons of the range of scores • Example: average % vulnerable • Community 1 22% 5.7% to 26.5% • Community 2 28% 10.5% to 46.7%

36. Ways to use the EDI - associations • Macro-level indicators (e.g., GDP) • Country, city, etc. statistics (e.g., education) • Differences among areas in outcomes for youth or adults (e.g., school drop-out, PISA, adult employment) • Environmental and geographical variables (local: e.g., parks, and global: e.g., pollution) • Cultural differences (e.g., type of nutrition, promotion of independence)

37. Ways to use the EDI - associations • Neighbourhood-level indicators of risk: socioeconomic, environmental, developmental • Example: Social Risk Index - a sum of risk (1) or no risk (1) level at 9 characteristics • 0-2 low SRI, 3-6 moderate SRI, 7-9 high SRI • Combination of SRI and EDI results

38. Toronto

39. Montréal

40. Can the EDI be adapted? • Used in several other countries with minimal changes • Subscale identification allows for valid shortening • Room for adjusting items to ensure relevance to local context

41. EDI Internationally • Translated/adapted in: Australia, Chile, Egypt, Holland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, New Zealand, Turkey, US (Washington state counties, currently further adaptation ongoing through UCLA) • Translated: China

42. Steps in adapting to local context • Experts’ feedback regarding the relevance of items • Possible change: within limits of the subdomains for comparability • Pilot implementation with teachers/ECE • Local validity assessment

43. Requirements for implementation • Entire groups of children are involved • Respondents know the child in an early learning setting • Respondents capable of interpreting the questions: • minimal training • provision of a written interpretation “guide”

44. Social Competence – Overall Social Competence

45. Emotional Maturity – Anxious & Fearful Behaviour

46. Language & Cognitive Development–interest literacy/numeracy & memory

47. Relationship of the EDI with SES indicators • Canada: low-income cut-off (4 categories) • Australia: disadvantage index (6 categories) • Jamaica: Asset Index (# assets) – quartiles • Kosovo: household financial situation in relation to ability to buy food and clothes (4 categories) • Mexico: Asset Index - 4 categories

48. Canada: % vulnerable by SES % 31.9 29.1 23.1 13.7 Source: NLSCY/UEY 1999-2000; EDI 1999-2000

49. Australia: % vulnerable by SES %

50. Jamaica: % vulnerable by SES % Vulnerable SES