improving school readiness one village at a time in ontario, canada: early years parenting centres...
TRANSCRIPT
Improving school readiness one village at a time in Ontario, Canada: Early Years parenting centres and teacher opinion of 5 years old’s development using the Early Development Instrument (EDI)
Catharine Tozer, Data Analysis Co-ordinator
Ontario Early Years Centre, Kawartha Lakes & Haliburton
Lindsay office
Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)
1. What are these Early Years Centres?
2. More knowledge
3. At the neighbourhood level
4. Population measure
5. Analyzed results
6. Mapping
7. Widely distributed
8. Knowledge exchange
Direct Election Prime Minister (head of party with most seats)
Head of State Governor General
Regions Provinces – each elects Premier
Premier of Ontario & provincial parliament determine education issues
Population 32, 730, 213
12, 630, 000 Ontario pop
Density 9 people per sq km
Land area 3, 511, 003 sq mi
Official languages English, French
Cities Toronto 2.6 million
Early education preschool not in schools ($$)
kindergarten (JK & SK)
Grade 1 (6 years old)
province of
Ontario
Canada
Ontario’s Early Years Plan• Focused on children 0-6
Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)
Brain development research
government policy changes
government funding
Ontario Early Years Centres across the province
Synaptic Density
Rethinking the Brain, Families and Work Institute, Rima Shore, 1997.
At Birth 6 Years Old 14 Years Old
0 1 4 8 12 16
AGE
Human Brain Development –Synapse Formation
SensingPathways
(vision, hearing)
LanguageHigherCognitive Function
3 6 9-3-6
Months Years
C. Nelson, in From Neurons to Neighborhoods, 2000.
Co
nce
ptio
n
01-003
The Mismatch Between Opportunity and Investment
Age0 3 10 70
97-044
Brain's "Malleability"
Spending on Health,
Education and Welfare
What is an Early Years Centre?
•103 Ontario Early Years Centres
•‘drop in’ for early learning and parent education
•adult & child together
•free
Child Outcome Measurement
measurement of child outcomes and program effectiveness was identified as a critical activity in early years programming
If we really believe that it takes a village…
the village must learn
what the children need
do we know that? how can we find out? can we find out at the neighbourhood level? what will communities do with that information?
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rural Lindsay
Social demographics such as:
-number of children 0-6 living in each neighbourhood
- where the services are
-% of lone parents with young children
-family income of families with young children
… but what about the skills of children coming from different neighbourhoods?
“The whole community has a responsibility for these children. The school
can help out by saying these are things we find about these kids in the
EDI. We, along with other leaders in the community, have to find a way
to improve the environment for these kids in the first 5 years of life. And
I’m convinced that if you’re going to raise the life quality of children 0-5
in Canada, it won’t be done by a top down approach by the government
saying we should do this or that, it’s going to be done community by
community. And the results of the EDI can help to motivate communities
to know what to work on, and to be able to work on these issues.” Dr.
Dan Offord, McMaster University, Canada 2003
the Early Development Instrument was developed by Dr. Dan Offord & Dr. Magdelena Janus of the Centre for Children at Risk (now the Offord Centre) at McMaster University.
Readiness for school:
The child’s ability to
meet the task demands
of grade 1 (6 years old)
To sit quietly and listen to the teacher
To benefit from the educational activities that are provided by the school
To be able to co-operate
Early Development Instrument reflects preschool services offered in the child’s community
every kindergarten teacher completes an 8 page questionnaire for each of their (5 year old) students in February
five domains of children’s early development…
Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)
1. Physical health and well-being
2. Emotional health and maturity
3. Social knowledge and competence
4. Language development and thinking skills
5. Communication skills & general knowledge
the EDI shows what % of children in each school are doing very well and what % are not ready to learn
the EDI is designed to measure the outcomes of children’s early years, not the school’s performance
Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)
low scores indicate that certain neighbourhoods have needs that must be addressed
when 20-30% of the students score low on more than one scale, it is a strong indicator there are children with increased needs at that school
EDI’s subdomains
Physical health and well-being
Language and cognitive
development
Social competence
Communicationskills andgeneral
knowledge
Emotionalmaturity
1. Physical readiness for the school day2. Physical independence3. Gross and fine motor skills
1. Overall social competence2. Responsibility and respect3. Approaches to learning4. Readiness to explore new things
1. Prosocial and helping behaviour2. Anxious and fearful behaviour3. Aggressive behaviour4. Hyperactivity and inattention
1. Basic literacy2. Interest in literacy/numeracy and memory3. Advanced literacy4. Basic numeracy
Communication skills and general knowledge
Domain Subdomain
EDI provides a baseline
Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)
National : thousands of schools from all 10 provinces of Canada
number of children last year – 110,000
Provincial: school readiness of every 5 year old in Ontario will be measured for the second time 2007- 2009.
1 in 20 children starts school
not ready to learn
yellow – highest scores
light blue – second highest
dark blue – mid range
pink – second lowest
red – lowest scores
Geographic Information System
(GIS) used to graphically report results
Benefits of EDI
building more bridges – agencies that serve infants, toddlers & preschoolers have an enhanced opportunity to plan
planning – assists schools to look forward to adjust school programs to meet the needs of incoming students
takes a village – enables communities to look backward to adjust early childhood programs to better support early child development
emphasizes the role of the community before the child reaches school
paints a picture - EDI results yield neighbourhood profiles of early childhood for every community in the board’s district
Level of data sharing after analysis is critical Who sees the results of the EDI?
One - Tight control• School Board – head office only, Early Years Centre – Director & DAC only
Curriculum changes & internal system planning in schools and OEYCs only, EDI results treated as confidential and carefully guarded. Usually only in the School Report form from McMaster University, little further analysis.
Two - The “Usual Suspects”• School Board – principals/ head teacher but only their own school’s data, Early Years – senior
staff, agencies with close relationships with the two partners
• Principals receive just their own School Report but not any other neighbourhood. School Boards do further analysis. Early Years add social demographic contextual data and share with senior staff only, in the form of an internal report, still confidential. Senior staff at one or two other agencies obtain general EDI results on condition of confidentiality because they know someone at the Board or Early Years. Their agency uses it for internal planning.
Three - Early Years Committee or Coalition
• School Board – all schools, Early Years centre – all staff, agencies serving young children (health departments, childcare, children’s aid, spec ed agencies etc)
Principals receive full report including SES patterns for the board, and are connected to agencies to consider partnerships. The School Board and Early Years present EDI results embedded in SES context to a committee of every agency serving young children. This is particularly effective if graphically depicted in maps.
Four - The Wider Community
• School Board – all staff, parent councils, Early Years Centre – all staff, agencies, politicians (municipal, provincial, federal)
Staff contributes ideas for partnerships with other agencies and schools such as OEYCs situating inside schools in vacant rural classrooms for parent education. Politicians learn much more about their youngest constituents, a steep learning curve for some. Changes in municipal recreation programs and parks for young families.
Five - The General Public
• School Board – all staff, parent council, school newsletters, Early Years centres –all staff, all participants
• Agencies, Service Groups – eg Rotary Clubs, the media, general community (incl. the 80% of taxpayers without children in school)
Leads to discussion, debate, action plans, community meetings, political planning and commitment for children, fundraising and informed members of the public not normally connected to young children anymore.
In British Columbia, Canada a map of EDI results was on the front page of the Vancouver Sun which made early years the ‘talk of the town’. This led to a coalition called HELP publishing the BC Atlas of Child Development mapping the readiness of children for formal learning across the province(Kershaw et al 2005).
EDI: Proportion of children living in each neighborhood that scored in the bottom 10%
on one or more scales
If the EDI analysis is widely shared, it leads to a more diverse range of changes in the community as a result
• Implementation of inter-sectoral committee for the early years in communities
• School partnerships
• Types of programs that benefit from increased school readiness knowledge– Parenting programs– Speech & language – Non-profit recreation – Health related– Roots of Empathy in schools– Socio-emotional or behaviour related– Aboriginal– English as a second language
Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)
Questions?
Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)
Any further questions?