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, , 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

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?

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 Communication skills and general knowledge Emotional maturity 1.Physical readiness for the school day 2.Physical independence 3.Gross and fine motor skills 1.Overall social competence 2.Responsibility and respect 3.Approaches to learning 4.Readiness to explore new things 1.Prosocial and helping behaviour 2.Anxious and fearful behaviour 3.Aggressive behaviour 4.Hyperactivity and inattention 1.Basic literacy 2.Interest in literacy/numeracy and memory 3.Advanced literacy 4.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

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).

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?