Early Care And Education Quality Research Articles

Poverty for lunch: A case study of agency and food scarcity in mealtimes in disadvantaged ECE

AbstractQuality early care and education (ECE) presents an unparalleled opportunity to avert disadvantage and promote children's development. Mealtimes are essential daily routines, yet are often overlooked in research on ECE quality. This paper crystallises a composite case study of ECE mealtimes in highly disadvantaged communities by combining Departing Radically in Academic Writing (DRAW) methodology with parent surveys, scorings of educator‐child interactions (inCLASS), and field notes. Poverty is perpetuated in these centres: children do not have enough food, and educator‐dictated feeding practices restrict children's opportunities to exercise their agency and learn. Systemic policy action is needed to address poverty in ECE.

Relating early care and education quality to preschool outcomes: The same or different models for different outcomes?

Although high-quality early care and education (ECE) is widely accepted as one of the most effective means for promoting early learning and development, many ECE programs have limited impact perhaps because of issues with how ECE quality is defined and measured. This study seeks to expand definitions of ECE quality by asking which preschool ECE quality dimensions relate to gains in which developmental outcomes and contrasting measurements using classroom-level ratings and child-level behavior counts. The sample includes 366 children in 63 randomly selected prekindergarten (pre-k) classrooms in six rural counties in a Southeast state. In the fall and spring, children were administered tests of academic achievement, language skills, and executive functions, and teachers rated their social skills. In the winter, the quality of teacher-child interactions was rated at the classroom level and the frequency that the child experienced complex teacher talk, domain-specific instructional activities, and whole group settings were counted at the child level. Two sets of analyses related gains in outcomes to the classroom-level ratings in both analyses and to behavior counts summarized at the classroom level and at the child level in separate analyses. Results indicated that (1) different ECE dimensions related to gains in different outcomes; (2) ECE quality measures based on observing the selected experiences of individual children provide as strong or stronger associations with child outcomes than do ratings of teacher-child interactions; and (3) it may be necessary to measure experiences of individual children if those experiences are likely to vary markedly among children in the same classroom.

The when and what of measuring ECE quality: Analysis of variation in the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) across the ECE day

Observational assessment has become an integral component of the quality improvement agenda in Early Care and Education (ECE) and has been significant in directing attention to quality of interactions within the ECE setting. Understanding the functioning of observational assessment is increasingly important as the stakes are high. Assessment outcomes influence programme funding. Assessment criteria direct educators to preference particular types of experiences for children, grounded in the assumptions that these criteria are those that best predict children's’ school readiness, ongoing achievements and wellbeing. We examine two contextual factors that might affect assessment functioning: (1) When – the timing of assessment in the ECE day and (2) What – the content and format of the activities observed. We provide the example of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), analysing 11,341 observations cycles undertaken in a representative sample of 2306 Australian pre-K (age 3–4 years) through Year 2 (age 7–8 years) classrooms. Our data show a generalised decline in instructional, organisational and emotional support across the ECE day (8am to 4pm) with recovery in emotional support at the end of the day. Within-classroom analyses demonstrate that whole group and small group formats and science, math, and social science content inflate, while meal times, physical activity, and transitions constrain CLASS scores. Separate analyses for pre-K classrooms showed similar patterns. We discuss the findings in terms of the purpose of assessment and suggest that particular times and events in the ECE day might serve as barometers of quality.

Pathways to Quality: From Internal Program Supports to Early Educators’ Practice

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: Early care and education (ECE) quality is critical for children’s learning, and ECE programs’ support of teachers’ learning may be important for ensuring high-quality classrooms. Yet little is known about how such supports operate outside of resource-intensive research studies and interventions. This study explores pathways through which “naturally occurring” professional development supports are related to improved classroom quality. Structural equation modeling results reveal indirect associations of support for mentoring with gains in structural and interactional aspects of classroom quality the following year via teachers’ participation in mentoring. Improvements in classroom quality were not similarly associated with support for degree attainment, nor were they related to teachers’ participation in a degree program, beliefs about teaching and learning, or job satisfaction. Practice or Policy: These findings help to expand our understanding of the complex relations among characteristics of ECE programs, individual teachers, and classroom quality. Specifically, mentoring may be an accessible and effective choice for improving classroom quality and thus may serve as a desirable target for policy aimed at improving ECE quality at scale.

ECE quality indicators and child outcomes: Analyses of six large child care studies

Practice and policy in early childhood education rely heavily on professional expertise and guidelines developed from research on early care and education (ECE) quality, but these guidelines have not been extensively researched. Data from six large studies of ECE quality were analyzed to relate structural and process quality indicators based on professional guidelines to children’s language, literacy, math, and social outcomes. Results indicated small gains related to some quality indicators (e.g., quality of teacher–child interactions, curriculum, and teacher and director education) for some of the preschoolers’ outcomes, but not other indicators (e.g., global quality, group size). Combining quality indicators into a single index also predicted gains in preschoolers’ language and literacy scores, but effect sizes for the quality rating were smaller than for individual indicators.

Family-centered measures of access to early care and education

This study proposes new family-centered measures of access to early care and education (ECE) services with respect to quantity, cost, and quality and uses them to assess disparities in access across locations and socio-demographic groups in Minnesota. These measures are distance-based and use available geographic data to account for the fact that families can cross arbitrary administrative boundaries, such as census tract or ZIP code lines, and thus better reflect the real experiences of families than conventional area-based measures. Combining synthetic family locations simulated from Census demographic and geographic data and information on ECE provider locations, we calculate travel time between the locations of families with young children and ECE providers to measure families’ access to providers of different types. The results yield a map of areas with low and high relative ECE access. The average family in Minnesota lives in a location where there are nearly two children for every nearby slot of licensed capacity, however, access to ECE supply varies considerably at the local level. The supply measure can also serve as a weight useful in computing family-centered measures of ECE quality and access costs, incorporating both prices and travel costs, to further characterize the local ECE market from the perspective of families. Improving the measures of variation in families’ access to ECE quantity, cost, and quality is valuable as policymakers consider expansions to public supports for early learning and ECE entrepreneurs decide where to invest.

Family-Centered Measures of Access to Early Care and Education

This study proposes new family-centered measures of access to early care and education (ECE) services with respect to quantity, cost, and quality and uses them to assess disparities in access across locations and socio-demographic groups in Minnesota. These measures are distance-based and use available geographic data to account for the fact that families can cross arbitrary administrative boundaries, such as census tract or ZIP code lines, and thus better reflect the real experiences of families than conventional area-based measures. Combining synthetic family locations simulated from Census demographic and geographic data and information on ECE provider locations, we calculate travel time between the locations of families with young children and ECE providers to measure families' access to providers of different types. The results yield a map of areas with low and high relative ECE access. The average family in Minnesota lives in a location where there are nearly two children for every nearby slot of licensed capacity, however, access to ECE supply varies considerably at the local level. The supply measure can also serve as a weight useful in computing family-centered measures of ECE quality and access costs, incorporating both prices and travel costs, to further characterize the local ECE market from the perspective of families. Improving measures of variation in families' access to ECE quantity, cost, and quality is valuable as policymakers consider expansions to public supports for early learning and ECE entrepreneurs decide where to invest.

Measuring Early Care and Education Quality

AbstractHigh‐quality early care and education (ECE) programs are thought to increase opportunities for all children to succeed in school, but recent findings call into question whether these programs affect children as anticipated. In this article, I examine research relating the quality of ECE to children's outcomes, finding somewhat inconsistent and modest associations with widely used measures of process and structural quality, and more consistent and stronger associations with other dimensions of ECE such as curricula and type of ECE program. I discuss why the associations between ECE quality and outcomes are so modest, including limited children's outcomes, psychometric issues with quality measures, and a need to revise and expand measures of ECE quality. The evidence indicates that we need to focus on the content of instruction and teaching practices, as well as the extent to which teachers actively scaffold learning opportunities. We also need to continue to focus on the quality of interactions between teachers and children, and on children's access to age‐appropriate activities.

Varying States of Head Start: Impacts of a Federal Program Across State Policy Contexts

ABSTRACTClassroom quality is critical for young children's learning, yet evidence suggests that the quality of early care and education (ECE) classrooms varies widely, even within federally administered Head Start. This study uses data from the nationally representative Head Start Impact Study to examine variation in children's access to formal and high-quality ECE by policy characteristics that demonstrate a state's commitment and approach to regulating ECE quality. Findings support existing evidence of the impact of randomization to Head Start on children's access to formal and high-quality ECE, and expand our understanding of the ways in which these impacts vary. Overall, we find that stronger state child care licensing regulations and other indicators of a child-friendly policy climate are associated with a smaller contrast between the Head Start versus control groups' access to both formal and high-quality ECE. This study also offers initial evidence that state regulations targeting the quality of an ECE program's professional environment may be particularly important for access to high-quality classrooms.

I. QUALITY THRESHOLDS, FEATURES, AND DOSAGE IN EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW.

This monograph addresses the hypotheses that preschool children benefit most strongly when early care and education (ECE) is at or above a threshold of quality, has specific quality features, and/or is of longer duration. These issues are pivotal in recent policies designed to improve the quality of ECE, especially for children from low-income families. Evidence of quality thresholds in which ECE quality has stronger impacts in settings with moderate to high levels of quality than in settings with low quality would inform policy initiatives in which monetary incentives or consequences are allocated to ECE settings based on their level of quality. Evidence that specific features of quality, such as quality of teacher-child interactions and of literacy and mathematics instruction, are predictors of gains in child outcomes could help inform quality improvement efforts. Evidence that more time spent in center-based ECE or in instruction in specific content areas predict larger gains among preschoolers could be useful in designing public preschool programs such as Head Start or prekindergarten. Secondary data analyses of eight large studies of preschool children in center-based ECE were conducted. Analyses focused on quality thresholds and quality features examined the extent to which three types of quality measures predicted gains in children's language, literacy, mathematics, and social skills. The measures comprised (1) global quality measures that provide an overall or global rating of quality, focusing on interactions as well as on physical features of the environment, activities, and routines; (2) interaction-specific measures that focus in depth on the quality of interactions between teachers and children with respect to instructional and emotional support; and (3) domain-specific measures that focus on the quality of instruction and stimulation in specific content areas such as early language and literacy. The goal was to provide replicated analyses with data from several projects in order to address each question. Multilevel analyses that controlled for entry skills were conducted, and results were combined by using meta-analysis, nonlinear and nonparametric analyses, and propensity score analyses. With respect to thresholds, the analyses suggest that increases in the quality of instruction are related to larger gains in language and literacy outcomes, but only in higher quality classrooms. Results point to stronger associations between quality and child outcomes in higher versus lower quality classrooms for measures of the instructional quality of teacher-child interactions and of the quality of specific activities thought to promote early literacy, such as teaching phonemic skills and book reading. In addition, the items focusing on quality of interactions on the global measure also predicted acquisition of language and social skills in higher but not in lower quality classrooms. With respect to quality features, interaction-specific and especially domain-specific measures of quality remained significant predictors of child outcomes, whereas global measures of quality were never significant positive predictors, when both global and more specific measures of quality were included simultaneously in analyses. There is thus consistent evidence that more specific measures of quality are better predictors of child outcomes. With respect to dosage, several approaches were used in operationalizing both the cumulative and current dosage of children's exposure to ECE. Propensity score analyses that included baseline scores on outcomes to control for selection into larger dosages suggested that children with two as opposed to one year of Head Start had stronger vocabulary and literacy skills both immediately upon exit from Head Start and at the end of kindergarten. Fewer absences and more observed time spent on instruction were associated with stronger gains in literacy and mathematics skills. Finally, findings revealed that more time spent on instruction in classrooms with higher overall quality was particularly important to the development of mathematics skills. No other replicated evidence of quality by quantity interactions emerged.

Early childhood education quality and child outcomes in China: Evidence from Zhejiang Province

Despite high rates of Chinese kindergarteners (3–6 years old) enrollment in early care and education (ECE), the quality of that care has not been widely examined. Following rapid economic growth in urban areas in the past three decades, there are growing concerns within China that families in urban and rural areas are experiencing an ECE opportunity gap. To address this concern, this study examined ECE quality and its association with child outcomes based on a relatively large sample of kindergartens in China. Using a stratified and random sampling method, the study recruited 1, 012 children (age 3–6) from 178 classrooms in Zhejiang Province, a relatively developed region with a population of over 54 million people. We used the Chinese Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale to measure ECE quality and found moderately low quality for the study sample. Also, lower quality was observed in rural than urban areas, in private than public programs, and in programs with overall low parent education than those with high parent education. One dimension of quality, teaching and interactions, predicted child outcomes in language, early math, and social cognition as measured by the Children's Developmental Scale of China (age 3–6) in hierarchical linear models. The possible sociocultural and contextual reasons for these findings and implications for policymakers and practitioners are discussed in this paper.

Patterns and predictors of early care and education for children in foster care

Patterns and predictors of center-based early care and education (ECE) of children in foster care were examined. Participants included 192 pre-Kindergarten age children in foster care. Foster parents reported demographics, ECE and other service use. Foster care history data was abstracted from case files. High rates of attendance in ECE prior to Kindergarten, including Head Start, other center-based ECE, or both were found. Children who attended Head Start were younger when first placed in foster care. Children who attended other center-based ECE services were more likely to live with kinship foster parents and foster families with higher incomes. Latent class analysis of ECE quantity, quality, type, and duration revealed three patterns: part-time Head Start, part-time other ECE, and full-time mixed ECE. Child and foster family characteristics predicted these patterns, illustrating distinct groups with potential implications for the development of children in foster care.