Assessment is coming and the early childhood sector must lead the way

Assessment is a core component of quality early childhood practice. It is explicitly highlighted in the new Early Years Leaning Framework V2.0 and is a standard within Quality Area 1 of the National Quality Standard. In everyday early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, and in initial teacher education, assessment is often limited to observational and narrative-driven approaches. Recent reviews of the literature highlight that there are few other assessment tools readily available to educators. What assessment looks like in early childhood is changing. The Commonwealth, as part of the Preschool Reform Funding Agreement, is developing, trialling, and implementing a preschool outcomes measure. The jurisdictions, too, are driving change: the Victorian Early Years Assessment and Learning Tool is an assessment designed to make consistent observations and assessments of children’s learning in preschool settings. The current state of assessment practices in early childhood settings, and the coming reforms, are provoking a debate about the purpose of assessment and the time invested in conducting assessment. Typically, distinctions are made between formative and summative assessments, as well as population measurement or reporting. Different tools are used for each – educators may imagine soon writing learning stories, completing a transition statement, and undertaking a new preschool outcome assessment for each child in their preschool setting. This paper highlights the latest trends and research in assessment in the early years and discusses a new model of early childhood assessment

Buk bilong Pikinini Literacy Program Evaluation 2018: Evaluation Report

Buk bilong Pikinini (BbP) provides access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs with a specific focus on English language literacy for children from vulnerable communities in Papua New Guinea. This is highly relevant, given the fact that there is likely an over-representation of illiteracy in disadvantaged households and few opportunities for children within those households to be ready for a school system with English as the language of instruction. Established in 2007, BbP has been in operation for more than 10 years and has opened 17 library sites in that time. This evaluation provides evidence about the likely effectiveness of the programs relative to best practice and in the early childhood and school policy and program delivery context of PNG. The major methods used were literature review and critical review of BbP documentation, and stakeholder consultations, semi-structured interviews and observations of classrooms

Beyond letters and numbers: the COVID-19 pandemic and foundational literacy and numeracy in Indonesia

In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic spreading across Indonesia and around the world, INOVASI (the Innovation for Indonesia’s School Children) and the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT) initiated a study of foundational literacy and numeracy learning by Indonesian students and the impact of the pandemic on this learning. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) provided technical support. The study developed descriptions of literacy and numeracy achievement levels, referencing both global proficiency frameworks and Indonesia’s curriculum and assessment standards. Student results were benchmarked against descriptors of skills for the Global Proficiency Framework (GPF) Minimum Proficiency Levels (MPLs)

The Overcoming Disadvantage in Early Childhood Study: Evaluation of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s Early Language and Literacy Program. Final Report

The Overcoming Disadvantage in Early Childhood (ODEC) study is a longitudinal evaluation of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s (ALNF) Early Language and Literacy (EL&L) program. The study was designed to answer the research question: What is the effect of the EL&L program on the development of language and literacy skills in preschool aged children? An integral component of this study was to develop a new measure of oral language and literacy - the Early Language and Literacy Developmental Index (ELLDI). The ELLDI was developed in recognition of the need for a best practice measure of oral language and literacy that was fit for purpose. This report documents the sum of work completed across the duration of the study from 2018-2022. The design of the study was based on the principles of a longitudinal outcome evaluation and had three components: a) design of the outcome measure: the ELLDI; b) interim results and recommendations; and c) final results, recommendations and reporting

The Overcoming Disadvantage in Early Childhood Study: Evaluation of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s Early Language and Literacy Program. Summary report

This report provides a summary of the completed Overcoming Disadvantage in Early Childhood (ODEC) longitudinal research study. The study was designed to evaluate the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s (ALNF) Early Language and Literacy (EL&L) program by answering the research question: What is the effect of the EL&L program on the development of language and literacy skills in preschool aged children? An integral component of this study was the development of the Early Language and Literacy Developmental Index (ELLDI), a new tool to measure oral language and literacy learning. The development of the ELLDI was based on the recognised need for a fit for purpose early childhood best practice measure of oral language and literacy. This summary report highlights the demonstrated capacity of the EL&L program to close the language and literacy achievement gap for children who participate in the program, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It also encapsulates the successful development of the ELLDI and the ELLDI scale to accurately measure and map children’s language and literacy development, to inform teaching and learning

Developing a strategy for quality pre-primary education for all and parenting education for ECCE - Policy options and road map

This study served as a contribution towards the development of evidence-based policies and strategies for the universal provision of holistic, integrated, affordable, sustainable, well-coordinated, high quality, and equitable Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini (PAUD) early childhood services in Indonesia, particularly for marginalized populations. Its specific objectives include support to the Ministry of Education in Indonesia in two areas: the development of a Road Map for a one-year “Quality Pre-Primary Education for All” (pre-primary PAUD) programme throughout Indonesia, and the development of a supporting programme of “Quality Parenting Education” for parents and caregivers of children of 0 to 6 years of age that can provide communities with the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and skills to support children’s growth, protection, and development (in support of the first indicator for SDG 4.2 target)

Understanding child disadvantage from a social determinants perspective

Copyright information: © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.Background Child health and developmental inequities exist in all countries. Comprehensive and robust concepts of disadvantage are fundamental to growing an evidence base that can reveal the extent of inequities in childhood, and identify modifiable leverage points for change. We conceptualise and test a multidimensional framework of child disadvantage aligned to a social determinants and bioecological perspective. Methods The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children is a nationally representative sample of two cohorts of Australian children, including the birth cohort of 5107 infants, which commenced in May 2004. The analysis focused on disadvantage indicators collected at age 4–5 years. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test a theoretically informed model of disadvantage. Concurrent validity was examined through associations with academic performance at 8–9 years. Results The model comprising four latent factors of sociodemographic (10 indicators), geographical environments (three indicators), health conditions (three indicators) and risk factors (14 indicators) was found to provide a better fit for the data than alternative models. Each factor was associated with academic performance, providing evidence of concurrent validity. Conclusion The study provides a theoretically informed and empirically tested framework for operationalising relative child disadvantage. Understanding and addressing inequities will be facilitated by capturing the complexity of children’s experiences of disadvantage across the multiple environments in which their development unfolds

Driving early childhood education quality in Indonesia

ACER has developed a ‘road map’ for quality pre-primary education and support for parental education programs throughout Indonesia. Dan Cloney reports

Using measures of quality to improve the learning outcomes of all children

There is compelling evidence that high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs can act to narrow achievement gaps attributed to social inequality. This evidence is typically observed in model programs, designed by experts and offered to vulnerable families outside the market. In everyday settings, where market forces may price families out of certain programs or poor local availability may preclude attendance, ECEC programs do not appear to deliver these significant gains or close these gaps. There is a need to continually improve quality in all ECEC settings to deliver on the potential of early education. It is unclear, however, how quality improvement can be achieved in way that will deliver the best start in life for all. This paper looks at what early childhood interaction quality looks like right now in Australian services and internationally. Specifically, what educator practices are related to children’s learning and development? This paper contributes to the knowledge about quality improvement in two ways. The first is related to how educators can leverage research into pedagogical quality to collect data and improve their own practice. The second relates to the organisation of the ECEC system and how it must be arranged to ensure all children get equal access to high-quality ECEC experiences. Together, these two contributions have the potential to increase the effect ECEC programs have on children’s learning and development outcomes and to deliver on the promise of narrowing achievement gaps and breaking the link. This paper explores the challenge of lifting the quality of Australian ECEC programs, so that the system can deliver on the promise of reducing achievement gaps related to disadvantage. Specifically, this paper brings together the latest research to ask how large-scale psychometric analysis can be used at the classroom level for educators, or communities of educators, to: (1) collect their own data about their practice, (2) visualise it on a continuum of pedagogical quality, and (3) use this information to demonstrate growth in quality