Toward High-Quality Early Childhood Development Programs and Policies at National Scale: Directions for Research in Global Contexts

The cost of not investing in the next 1000 days: implications for policy and practice

Building on the evidence from the first paper in this Series highlighting the fundamental importance of healthy and nurturing environments for children's growth and development in the next 1000 days (ages 2-5 years), this paper summarises the benefits and costs of key strategies to support children's development in this age range. The next 1000 days build on the family-based and health-sector based interventions provided in the first 1000 days and require broader multisectoral programming. Interventions that have been shown to be particularly effective in this age range are the provision of early childhood care and education (ECCE), parenting interventions, and cash transfers. We show that a minimum package of 1 year of ECCE for all children would cost on average less than 0·15% of low-income and middle-income countries' current gross domestic product. The societal cost of not implementing this package at a national and global level (ie, the cost of inaction) is large, with an estimated forgone benefit of 8-19 times the cost of investing in ECCE. We discuss implications of the overall evidence presented in this Series for policy and practice, highlighting the potential of ECCE programming in the next 1000 days as an intervention itself, as well as a platform to deliver developmental screening, growth monitoring, and additional locally required interventions. Providing nurturing care during this period is crucial for maintaining and further boosting children's progress in the first 1000 days, and to allow children to reach optimal developmental trajectories from a socioecological life-course perspective.

Family-Centered Early Intervention Deaf/Hard of Hearing (FCEI-DHH): Structure Principles

This article is the seventh in a series of eight articles that comprise a special issue on family-centered early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families, or FCEI-DHH. This article, Structure Principles, is the third of three articles (preceded by Foundation Principles and Support Principles) that describe the 10 FCEI-DHH Principles. The Structure Principles include 4 Principles (Principle 7, Principle 8, Principle 9, and Principle 10) that highlight (a) the importance of trained and effective Early Intervention (EI) Providers, (b) the need for FCEI-DHH teams to work collaboratively to support families, (c) the considerations for tracking children's progress through developmental assessment, and (d) the essential role of progress monitoring to continuously improve systems.

Global tracking of access and quality in early childhood care and education

Investments in early childhood care and education (ECCE) have contributed to a growing demand for internationally comparable data. Yet data on access to quality ECCE are not routinely collected in many countries, leading to limited information on equitable access to ECCE, quality of provision, and the impact on learning and wellbeing outcomes. This paper outlines the current status of global measurement of access to quality ECCE and identifies issues with definitions, availability, and accuracy of ECCE data across countries and outlines paths forward. We argue that estimates of access to ECCE should be based on children's participation in quality ECCE across multiple program types, rather than enrollment or attendance alone, given the critical importance of dosage and participation for ensuring positive benefits from ECCE. Governments, international organizations, and researchers all have roles to play in setting standards to define and monitor ECCE, generating workable tools for measuring nationally, and globally investing in national monitoring systems and routine household surveys to obtain accurate estimates of access to quality ECCE.

Profiles of Quality in Three Distinct Early Childhood Programs Using the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory (BEQI)

Quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) is important for young children's holistic healthy development. As ECCE scales, contextually relevant and feasible measurement is needed to inform policy and programs on strengths and areas for improvement. However, few measures have been designed for use across diverse contexts. Drawing on principles of mixed methods design, this study reports on a new approach to ECCE quality measurement: the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory. Using data from the USA, Liberia, and Colombia, results indicate variation in the items perceived as highly relevant to each setting and in the characteristics of classrooms including the degree of child autonomy, the types of activities, and in child/educator interactions and dialogue. However, despite this variation, a small set of items indicate potential functionality as cross-country anchor items. Findings lend support to the idea that quality measures can have some common elements with room for adaptation within and across settings. Future work in this area should address the possibility that the significance of these practices for child development also varies across settings.

Measuring the Quality of Early Childhood Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Young children’s access to early childhood education (ECE) is increasing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), though often without attention to service quality. Monitoring quality requires classroom observations, but most observation tools available were developed in high-income western countries. In this article, we examine key issues in measuring ECE quality in LMICs and consider challenges and opportunities in balancing theoretical grounding, cultural- and contextual-adaptation, and empirical rigor. We then review the literature on observed classroom quality in LMICs, focusing on process quality. We find limited evidence that the constructs identified in high-income countries replicate in LMICs. Further, the very limited evidence that ECE quality measures used in LMICs predict child outcomes is almost exclusively cross-sectional and associations are mixed. We conclude by discussing how future research can build a stronger knowledge base about ECE quality and child development globally.

Profiles of teacher-child interaction quality in groups of 3-year-old children in Quebec and France

Theory and studies support that educational quality may differ according to socio-political context even in states with similar cultures. Based on a secondary analysis of data, this study aims at identifying latent profiles of adult-child interaction quality in groups of three-year-old children in Quebec's (Canada) early childhood centers and France's kindergarten classrooms using the CLASS Pre-K. This study also aims to explore existing associations between identified profiles, socio-political contexts, and structural characteristics (staff qualifications, ages, group size). Latent profile analyses showed four interaction quality profiles, namely a high-quality profile (HQ), a medium-high-quality profile (MHQ), a medium quality profile (MQ), and a medium-low-quality profile (MLQ). The scores of the three CLASS Pre-K domains associated with identified profiles show a higher average interaction quality in Quebec compared with France, suggesting a more favorable sociocultural context for interaction quality in Quebec. As for characteristics of structural quality, analyses suggest that the group size variable is significantly associated with scores of interaction quality, with the HQ and the MHQ profiles showing a significantly lower group size than the MQ and MLQ profiles. Age is also significantly associated with profiles, exhibiting a general trend of younger participants found in higher quality profiles. Courses of action to enhance French policies are discussed.

Measuring the quality of early childhood education: Associations with children's development from a national study with the IMCEIC tool in Colombia

National-level monitoring of quality of early childhood education (ECE) is key to achieving inclusive and equitable education. Most countries report structural quality while process characteristics are rarely observed at the national level. This study examined the associations between ECE and children's development in a middle-income country using data from a nationally representative sample of public centers serving Colombian children (N = 3163; M = 4.3 years, 50% girls; 42% Mestizo, 16% White, 15% Afro-Colombian, 4% Indigenous, 23% not reported). Descriptive findings evidenced low to moderate quality. Multilevel models showed several positive associations between structural and process quality and child outcomes. Results have implications for the existing literature and highlight the feasibility of quality monitoring in low- and middle-income countries.

Mini-Review on Capacity-Building for Data-Driven Early Childhood Systems: The Consortium for Pre-primary Data and Measurement in Sub-Saharan Africa

Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are increasing investments in early childhood development programs, including early childhood education. As programs reach scale, there is increasing demand for evidence on impacts of investments. Little work to date has examined capacity required to effectively use data at scale in LMIC, including opportunities and barriers to integrating data into ongoing program implementation and tracking child development and quality of services at scale. Below, we outline the rationale and approach of the Consortium for Pre-primary Data and Measurement in Sub-Saharan Africa, focused on building capacity for data-driven decision-making in early childhood systems. Themes from the first phase include the importance of building diverse groups of stakeholders to define priorities for data and measurement, the need for coordinated and strategic investments in data and measurement, and the value of long-term investments in government/civil society/university partnerships to generate locally relevant data on early childhood education.

Implementation research for early childhood development programming in humanitarian contexts

Young children living in conditions of war, disaster, and displacement are at high risk for developmental difficulties that can follow them throughout their lives. While there is robust evidence supporting the need for early childhood development (ECD) in humanitarian settings, implementation of ECD programming remains sparse, largely due to the lack of evidence of how and why these programs can improve outcomes in humanitarian settings. In order to build the evidence base for ECD in humanitarian settings, we review the current state of implementation research for ECD programming (targeting children 0-8) in humanitarian settings, through a literature review and a series of key informant interviews. Drawing from existing frameworks of implementation research and the findings from our analysis, we present a framework for ECD implementation research in humanitarian settings and propose an agenda for future research.

Adaptation and Application of the Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO) Framework to Early Childhood Education Settings in Colombia

Abstract. In Colombia, the national law De Cero a Siempre (DCAS) provides a framework for holistic and integrated early childhood development and education for all children. Against the backdrop of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the DCAS policy objectives, Colombia set out to apply a comprehensive measure to track the quality of early childhood education programs that would inform pedagogical, programmatic, and policy strategies. Our study describes the process whereby key stakeholders selected, adapted, validated, and applied the Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO) framework to characterize the quality of early childhood education at scale in the country. We describe the phases that led to the application of the different instrument modules, and the key enablers and challenges to the process. The paper includes implications for policy, practice, and research in Colombia and discusses lessons learned with relevance to the Latin American and global contexts.