1 Offord Centre for Child Studies Cindy Walsh SRL Program Coordinator GUIDELINES FOR COORDINATORS

2 What is the EDI? The EDI is teacher-completed checklist that assesses children’s readiness to learn when they enter school. In other words, it measures the outcomes of children’s pre-school (0-6 years) experiences as they influence their readiness to learn at school. As a result, the EDI is able to predict how children will do in elementary school.

3 A Population-Based Measure The EDI is designed to be interpreted at the group level. The EDI does not provide diagnostic information on individual children.

4 Early Development Instrument (EDI) Teacher-completed 104 questions grouped into the five domains Indicators of special problems and special skills Up to 10 questions about the child’s pre-school experience

5 Benefits Results from the Early Development Instrument (or EDI) will enable us to: Look forward – adjust school programs to meet the current needs of incoming students (schools). Look backward – adjust early childhood programs to help ensure children are ready to learn and make it easier for them to make the transition to school (community).

6 Benefits cont’d Schools use EDI data by itself for program planning. Community uses EDI data in conjunction with other information (e.g., EQAO results, population statistics, other community information) to identify neighbourhoods where additional early years supports may be required.

7 Getting Started School boards informed & onside Data base template Data sharing agreement letters

8 Paper vs. Electronic Version ?

9 How do we do it? Preparation Phase Receive a database from coordinator with critical variables included Assign EDI identification numbers (unique per child) Print questionnaires with individual EDI IDs Send out packages of questionnaires and additional materials

Site Name: Site Coordinator: School Board: School Name Teacher Name Child’s First Name Child’s Last Name Child’s Local ID Classroom Time Pleasant Mrs. Doubtfire JohnnyAppleseed am Database Template

Class Assignment Child’s Gender Child’s Postal Code Neighbourhood Child’s Date of Birth Day Month Year SK M L7N 2V66

12 EDI label (item 5a) School Name: Teacher Name: Date of birth: Gender: Postal Code: Class Assignment: 11 digits in EDI ID: 3 for the site; 3 for the School; 2 for the teacher; 1 for class time; 2 for child’s number on class list. Site: 029Class: PM (2) School: 001Child: 1st on list Teacher: 01

13 EDI Package 1) Additional Explanatory Notes for Teachers (item 1 2) Teacher Participation Form (item3) 3) EDI Guide (item 2) 4) ClassList from McMaster (item 4) 5) EDI questionnaires, individually labeled (item 5a) 6) A blank EDI questionnaire EDI package will contain the following items: (One per teacher) (One per class) (One per teacher) (One per class) (One per child) (One per teacher)

14 Teacher Participation Form (item 3) Please complete one per class. Helps us keep everything organized when you return the questionnaires to us. (teacher ID is first 9 digits of EDI ID) It also provides information on the general characteristics of the population of teachers and their experience with the EDI. It is not intended for evaluation of any sort. The information will be examined as a whole, not on an individual basis.

15 EDI Guide (item 2) Intended to facilitate completion of the EDI; based on comments from teachers. Teachers should read the whole Guide once before starting to complete the questionnaires. Open to further comments: If teachers have comments pertaining to the guide, please ask them to write them on a separate sheet of paper and enclose with their completed questionnaires.

16 Class list (item 4) One for each class Based on the data sent to us Includes: School name, Teacher name, Child’s EDI id, Child’s local ID,date of birth and gender For unique identification of the child while completing, it should be matched with a list (generated locally) with names, dates of birth and local ID

17 Optional extras A blank questionnaire is enclosed in the package to provide an extra form if needed Optional information letters may describe idiosyncratic procedures relevant to the community (e.g., reporting release time)

18 What next? Parent Information Letters Local Class Lists Arrange Teacher Training Session(s)

19 Teacher Information Sessions Recommended items to cover at Teacher Information Sessions (handout) (handout) Can be set up where teachers fill out questionnaires after training

20 COMPLETING THE QUESTIONNAIRES

21 EDI Completion It takes approximately 20 minutes to complete each questionnaire. The first 2-3 questionnaires may take more time than the average 20 minutes. However, once a few have been completed, it should take closer to 10 minutes per questionnaire.

22 The EDI is based on the teacher’s perception of the child’s development, the child does not need to be present Responses to the questions should be based on teacher’s observations of the students reflecting his/her CURRENT developmental status EDI completed on every SK student in the classroom...except if teacher had only known this child for less than one month—then only complete the first page of the EDI for this child EDI Completion

23 General Instructions Please use a blue or black ball-point pen. If a mistake is made, do not use white-out. Put a large X over the wrong answer and put a clean mark in the correct circle. Use ‘I don’t know’ as a last resort only, especially in the student demographic page (page 1). Questionnaires received with too many ‘I don’t knows’ cannot be used in the final analysis.

24 Step 1: Verify school and teacher information Look at the label in the top right corner of the questionnaire. Confirm that the School and Teacher information is correct. If School and Teacher information does not appear on the label, please print it clearly in the spaces provided.

25 Step 2: Identify the child In the top right corner of the form is an 11- digit child identification number (generated by McMaster University) called the EDI ID#. To find the child’s name, teacher will need to cross-reference the child’s EDI ID# with both the ClassList (generated by McMaster University) and the Local Class List.

26 Cross Referencing Class Lists CLASSLIST GENERATED BY MCMASTER School Name Teacher Name EDI ID Local ID# DOB Gender Class TimePostal Code Valley School Mrs. X /09/99 famL7N 2V6 Valley School Mrs. X /04/99 mamL9H 2G1 Valley School Mrs. X /02/99 famF8L 2F1 Valley School Mrs. X /06/99 mamL9H 3X6 Find the EDI ID# from the questionnaire on this ClassList generated by McMaster. Cross-reference the corresponding Local ID# with the Local Class List. CLASSLIST GENERATED LOCALLY Teacher Name Child’s Last Name Child’s First Name Local ID# DOB Gender Postal Code Mrs. X WalshCindy /09/99 f L7N 2V6 Mrs. X Gaskin Ashley /04/99 f L9H 2G1 Mrs. X Raos Robert /02/99 m F8L 2F1 Mrs. X JanusMagdalena /06/99 f L9H 3XY

27 Step 3: Confirm the child’s identity Quickly double-check that the DOB, Gender and Postal Code on the bottom half of the label on the questionnaire is the same as the information on the Local Class List. This will confirm that the questionnaire is indeed for that child.

28 Missing or incorrect label information If any of the information on the label (top right corner of the EDI questionnaire) is incorrect or missing, enter the correct information in: the label and the Scantron section on page 1 by filling in the appropriate circles

29 Missing Questionnaire If there are not enough forms for everyone (e.g., new child in your class): Take the blank EDI questionnaire and make as many photocopies as you need. Take the 9-digit Teacher ID # from the Teacher Participation Form and write it in the label at the top of the EDI questionnaire. Next, enter the child’s date of birth, gender, and postal code both in the label and by filling out the Scantron section on page 1. Proceed with the rest of the EDI questionnaire as usual.

30 IMPORTANT!! Q 7 Special Needs – Cannot be left blank!! A professional must identify the child as special needs, this is not meant to be an assessment by the teacher. For example a child identified already as needing special assistance due to chronic medical, physical, or mental disabling conditions (e.g., autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, Down syndrome) and/or a child requires special assistance in the classroom. A professional must identify the child as special needs, this is not meant to be an assessment by the teacher. For example a child identified already as needing special assistance due to chronic medical, physical, or mental disabling conditions (e.g., autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, Down syndrome) and/or a child requires special assistance in the classroom.

31 Q 8 ESL Refers to a child for whom English is NOT their first language AND who needs additional instruction in English. A child is NOT considered ESL if his/her first language is English, or the child is able to speak another language apart from English, but whose English is fluent, or a child whose first language (developmentally) is not English but whose English is fluent. IMPORTANT!!

Phase Two: Returned Forms Once ALL the EDI forms are completed, they have to be returned to McMaster Contact us when shipped The data is scanned, analyzed and reports completed Data is processed on the first-come, first- served basis The larger the site, the longer it takes to process the data

33 Timelines Written confirmation by October 1 st (include estimate of number of boards and number of students) Database template filled in and returned to OCCS by October 31st EDIs sent to coordinators mid January Implementation February/March Returned to OCCS by April 15th Reports completed in order received

34 Thank you!