Assessing Program Delivery from the Perspective of Service Providers: the Ontario Early Years Centres’ School Readiness Program

Abstract

This paper assesses the School Readiness program as delivered in two Ontario Early Years Centres (OEYCs) in Toronto. Information about program goals and delivery methods gleaned from interviewing three Child Development Consultants who ran the program in the last year is analyzed within the context of existing scholarship on and practices in early childhood learning and development. The interviewers' observations and comments form the basis for the assessment of the effectiveness of the OEYC School Readiness program. An important part of assessing effectiveness is determining whether the OEYCs and program workers have set clearly defined learning outcomes for program participants and how, if at all, the program measures these outcomes. In assessing program effectiveness, one of the factors considered is to what extent the OEYCs acknowledge and address the needs of an important demographic: immigrant children (and their support network of parents/caregivers and families). The observations and recommendations made in this study are intended to help service providers in the OEYCs develop a best practice model for program delivery, including arriving at a better sense of how they conceive of school readiness.