Abstract
Early childhood education (ECE) intervention programs nowadays are the core of the educational disadvantage policy in the Netherlands. They offer institutional compensatory activities to young children who lack educational stimulation in the home environment. Target groups mainly comprise children from deprived socioeconomic backgrounds and of immigrant origin. ECE is confronted with several bottlenecks, including the definition of the target groups, the quality of ECE staff, and the ECE programs. Most important is the controversy surrounding the empirical evidence of effects of ECE provisions. This article presents a description of state-of-the-art Dutch ECE, with special attention to recent Dutch studies on the effectiveness of ECE programs.
Highlights
Childhood education (ECE) intervention programs nowadays are the core of the educational disadvantage policy in the Netherlands
Most important is the controversy surrounding the empirical evidence of effects of Early childhood education (ECE) provisions
ECE intervention programs have been implemented in many
Summary
Policies to improve the educational opportunities of children from disadvantaged backgrounds have been implemented [1]. Large-scale longitudinal studies have shown that, at the very start of their school careers, Dutch language development of especially Turkish and Moroccan children already lagged behind by six months to more than a year [3]. This lag did not disappear during primary education. ECE intervention programs (which should be distinguished from regular education and care provisions for young children such as playgroups and schools) have been implemented in many.
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