Improving school readiness one village at a time in Ontario, Canada: Early Years parenting centres and teacher opinion of 5 years olds development using the Early Development Instrument (EDI)

Catharine Tozer, Data Analysis Co-ordinator Ontario Early Years Centre, Kawartha Lakes & HaliburtonLindsay office

Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)

What are these Early Years Centres? More knowledge At the neighbourhood level Population measure Analyzed results Mapping Widely distributed Knowledge exchange

Direct ElectionPrime Minister (head of party with most seats)Head of StateGovernor GeneralRegionsProvinces each elects Premier Premier of Ontario & provincial parliament determine education issuesPopulation32, 730, 213 12, 630, 000 Ontario pop Density9 people per sq kmLand area3, 511, 003 sq miOfficial languagesEnglish, French

CitiesToronto 2.6 millionEarly educationpreschool not in schools ($$)kindergarten (JK & SK)Grade 1 (6 years old)

province of OntarioCanada

Ontarios Early Years PlanFocused on children 0-6Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)

Brain development research government policy changesgovernment fundingOntario 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

In the early years, childrens brains form twice as many synapses as they will eventually need. If these synapses are used repeatedly in a childs day-to-day life, they are reinforced and become part of the brains permanent circuitry. If they are not used repeatedly, or often enough, they are eliminated. In this way, experience plays a crucial role in wiring a young childs brain.

Have those early reading experiences been pleasurable or have they even been there? If by the time you get to school you have not had these experiences wired in it becomes more difficult to learn to read and write than those children who have had rhymes, songs, and books shared with them.

Rima Shore Rethinking the Brain pg. 17. What this evidence does show you is that the early period of life has a significant effect on the wiring and sculpting of the brain.

01-003

0

1

4

8

12

16

AGE

Human Brain Development Synapse Formation

Sensing

Pathways

(vision, hearing)

Language

Higher

Cognitive Function

3

6

9

-3

-6

Months

Years

C. Nelson, in From Neurons to Neighborhoods, 2000.

Conception

97-044

The Mismatch Between Opportunity and Investment

Age

0

3

10

70

What is an Early Years Centre?

103 Ontario Early Years Centresdrop in for early learning and parent education adult & child togetherfree

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?

Social demographics such as:

number of children 0-6 living in each neighbourhood where the services are% of lone parents with young childrenfamily 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 Im convinced that if youre going to raise the life quality of children 0-5 in Canada, it wont be done by a top down approach by the government saying we should do this or that, its 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 childs 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 childs community

every kindergarten teacher completes an 8 page questionnaire for each of their (5 year old) students in February

five domains of childrens early developmentCatharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)

1. Physical health and well-being

2. Emotional health and maturity3. 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 childrens early years, not the schools 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

EDIs subdomainsPhysical health and well-beingLanguage and cognitivedevelopmentSocial competenceCommunicationskills andgeneral knowledgeEmotionalmaturityPhysical readiness for the school dayPhysical independenceGross and fine motor skillsOverall social competenceResponsibility and respectApproaches to learningReadiness to explore new thingsProsocial and helping behaviourAnxious and fearful behaviourAggressive behaviourHyperactivity and inattentionBasic literacyInterest in literacy/numeracy and memoryAdvanced literacyBasic numeracyCommunication skills and general knowledgeDomainSubdomain

EDI provides a baselineCatharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centres & Early Development Instrument (EDI)National : thousands of schools from all 10 provinces of Canada number of children last year 110,000Provincial: 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 scoreslight blue second highestdark blue mid rangepink second lowestred lowest scoresGeographic 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 boards district

Level of data sharing after analysis is critical Who sees the results of the EDI?

One - Tight controlSchool 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 SuspectsSchool Board principals/ head teacher but only their own schools 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, childrens 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 knowledgeParenting programsSpeech & language Non-profit recreation Health relatedRoots of Empathy in schoolsSocio-emotional or behaviour relatedAboriginalEnglish 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?

EECERA 2007 - Prague, Catharine Tozer, Ontario Early Years Centre & University of Toronto OISE, numbers@oeyc.ca