1. Ready-Set-Go! Using the IDELA instrument in a comprehensive ECD intervention targeting marginalized Roma children in Romania

2. Equality of opportunity for the marginalized Roma is a moral imperative…
Share of Roma and non-Roma children (0-17) over income deciles (Romania left, Bulgaria right)
Romania
Bulgaria
From baseline report: When a Roma child is born in Romania, he or she is typically born into poverty: nine out of 10 Roma live in severe material deprivation. One-half of Roma children grow up in overcrowded housing, and one-third in slum dwellings. The Roma child faces a higher chance than non-Roma peers of suffering from early malnutrition or diseases that jeopardize healthy development in the crucial first years of life.
Source: Romania, 2013 Household Budget Survey; Bulgaria, 2012 Longitudinal Household Survey.

3. Contrasting population pyramids
…and also smart economics in the rapidly aging societies of Eastern Europe.
In Romania, between 6-20% of new labor market entrants are Roma.
Contrasting population pyramids
Roma population General population
an investment in Roma children makes social justice and economic sense
Source: UNDP/World Bank/EC regional Roma survey (2011) and United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2013). World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision, DVD Edition

4. Yet, significant educational gaps between Roma and non-Roma persist
Percentage of Roma and non-Roma children aged 0-6 enrolled into preschool
Boys
Girls
Early investments produce the highest returns. Investments in early childhood education should be coupled with investments in the families of marginalized Roma children, particularly in the first 1000 days of life.
Attending and finishing school is critical for Roma pupils. Access to quality primary education should be enhanced throughout all primary and secondary grades, and should be coupled with dropout prevention measures.
Tertiary degree is a passport for equal access to labor market. Merit-based scholarships should be complemented with well-targeted affirmative action measures.
A critical component of the path ahead is to ensure that Central European education systems are more inclusive.

5. The Ready-Set-Go project – an overview
A collaboration between Roma Education Fund (REF) Romania, the World Bank and Save the Children Foundation, sponsored by Norway / EEA Grants
Program group: 280 disadvantaged Roma children in RSG, from 11 localities, ages 2 to 7
Control 1 group: 280 disadvantaged Roma children not enrolled in RSG, from 13 localities, ages 2 to 7
Control 2 group: 279 non-Roma children in similar localities, ages 2 to 6
Survey implemented by ICCV between February and June 2017
Interventions
Infrastructure investments and teaching materials
Quality ECD programs
Improving parenting skills
Pre-enrolment support
Toy library network
Baseline survey
The Ready-Set-Go Project (RSG), implemented by the Roma Education Fund Romania (REF Romania) and funded by the Norway Grants, is working to address the early learning gap for Roma children. This project became effective in February 2015, with the objective of improving the early childhood development outcomes of Roma children in 11 communities in Romania through April RSG activities include:
1. Expanding access to quality pre-school education through small-scale infrastructure investments, provision of furniture and pedagogic materials to renovated preschools, establishment of a toy library network, pre-enrolment support through outreach, transportation, and food coupons;
2. Quality ECD programs for children living in marginalized communities through hiring pre-school staff and providing training and mentoring on inclusive education, involving Roma parents in pre-school activities;
3. Improving ECD parenting skills through community motivation events for awareness raising on parenting practices, literacy for empowerment of mothers (Your Story);
4. Communication and advocacy, dissemination of results; and
5. Monitoring and evaluation.
A key program element under the Bank’s support on M&E is the development and analysis of baseline and endline program data, so as to explore the impact of RSG activities on beneficiary households and their children.

6. RSG baseline survey - project and control locations
blue – program, red – control 1, green – control 2
Steps for the selection of Control group localities
For each locality from the Program group the team has selected all the localities in the same county with at least 20 Roma children 3-5 years (for Şilindru village, the locality must have included at least 20 Hungarian children)[1].
From the previously selected localities the team selected the nearest 4 to 6 in terms of the structure of employment status (employed, self-employed, unemployed).
The distances between localities are calculated using KNN (nearest-neighbor) (all variables were standardized) using as reference the locality from the program group.
From the previously selected localities the team has kept the localities with similar local human development index to the one in the program group (for a definition of the local human development index, please refer to World Bank, 2016).
REF Romania has conducted field checks as to whether a sufficient number of children exist in marginalized communities in these localities.
From the 2-3 localities selected as control for each locality of the Program group, the survey firm has selected one as the main control locality using as selection criteria the distance to the locality in the Program group.
Children from the Control 1 group localities were selected via random route sampling, only from the households that fulfilled the selection criteria through variables used for PMT score computation. Children from the Control 2 group localities were selected using probabilistic sampling based on a list of children enrolled on kindergarten. In no more than 10 cases were households with two children included.
[1] Children from the Control 1 group localities were selected via random route sampling, only from the households that fulfilled the selection criteria through variables used for PMT score computation. Children from the Control 2 group localities were selected using probabilistic sampling based on a list of children enrolled on kindergarten. In no more than 10 cases were households with two children included.
To visit the interactive project baseline map, please visit this link.

7. Select baseline survey findings: difference in socio-economic status between groups affect scores in all domains
Quintile of socio-economic status by group (proxy means testing)
Total IDELA scores by group and domain
Note: the quintile of socio-economic status has been determined through proxy means testing, computed as a weighted score based on regression coefficients computed from 27 items related to education level, employment status, housing and living conditions, and household possessions.
Note: Figure controls for children’s age and gender. Standard errors are clustered by community.

8. Select baseline survey finding: strong association between home learning environment and IDELA scores
Note: Figures control for children’s age and gender. Standard errors are clustered by community.

9. Conclusions of the baseline survey
Children and parents in RSG and Control 1 demonstrate similar performance. Children and parents in Control 2 group do better.
Reading, number of reading materials and toys are key.
Reading materials predict motor and literacy; HL activities predict literacy and numeracy; while toys predict motor, numeracy, and executive functioning scores.
Gender gaps favor the girls, particularly in social-emotional development.
No significant difference in skills between Romani and Romanian speaking children.
Next step: End-line survey
(2017 April)