1. Preschool policy and practice: In (re)search for the right way Maastricht University School of Business and Economics www.kaans.nl 1

2. Who: Research program Kaans at the School of Business and Economics (Maastricht University) What: Monitor performance and effectiveness of centre-based programmes How: Collect data on educational achievement and developmental progress of children at preschools and child-care centres., Kindergarten, and the lower grades of primary school. Besides, we have questionnaires for parents and teachers Where: southern part of the Netherlands 2 VVE-Monitor

3. Administrative dataTeacher questionnaireDay-care centre questionnaireParental questionnaireStandardized testsObservationsQuestionnaires and test from Kindergartenonwards 3 Overview

4. 4 Question 1 Most interesting group of parents (low education level & low SES) falls short in response How to reach and motivate these parents to increase their participation? How to substitute the lacking response of these parents?

5. 5 Question 2 Variety of children, families, backgrounds, centre-based programmes and so on. Makes it difficult to make well designed comparisons, especially on a small scale. Given this diversity: How can we make our contributions both relevant for both society and science? Our data is of little direct relevance for teachers, parents, and even local policy makers … how can we articulate and explain the relevance of our programme and stimulate them to take part?

6. 6 Thank you For more information or a cup of coffee, please contact: Karien Coppens Maastricht University K.Coppens@maastrichtuniversity.nl