Starting Strong III: Policy Toolbox to Encourage Quality in ECEC – Country Materials

This page compiles a sample of concrete examples of approaches used by governments to improve ECEC within their country. Links to websites, reports, frameworks, guides, training videos, brochures, etc. have been categorised by the five levers of the Policy Toolbox:

Setting out quality goals and regulations

Australia

• National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care

Canada

• British Columbia: Child Care Licensing Regulation
• Québec: Plan stratégique 2008-2012 du ministère de la Famille et des Aînés

Ireland

• Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations 2006 and Explanatory Guide to Requirements and Procedures for Notification and Inspection

Netherlands

• Onderwijsachterstandenbeleid Primair Onderwijs
• Handreiking harmonisatie Wet OKE voor peuterspeelzaal-en kinderopvangondernemers

New Zealand

• Pathways to the Future: A 10-Year Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education
• Ministry of Education Centre based ECE services website
• Ministry of Education Home based ECE services website

Norway

• Factsheet: The most important messages in White Paper No. 41 (2008-09): Quality in ECEC
• "Act no. 64 of June 2005 relating to Kindergartens (the Kindergarten Act)"

Portugal

• Programa Educação 2015

Sweden

• Status and pedagogical task of preschool to be strengthened
• The Politics of Pre-school: intentions and decisions underlying the emergence and growth of the Swedish pre-school

United Kingdom

• Quality Wheel

United States

• Head Start Program Performance Standards and Other Regulations
  (45 CFR Chapter XIII, Government Printing Office, 2009)
• Program Performance Measures for Head Start Programs Serving Infants and Toddlers (Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006)

Designing and implementing curriculum and standards

Australia

• Belonging, Being and Becoming: Early Years Learning Framework for Australia
• Early childhood literacy and numeracy: Building good practice

Canada

• British Columbia: Full Day Kindergarten Program Guide
• Ontario: The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten Program: Draft Version

Czech Repubic

• Framework Education Programme for Preschool Education

Finland

• National Curriculum Guidelines on Early Childhood Education and Care in Finland

Germany

• Der Bayerische Bildungs- und Erziehungsplan für Kinder in Tageseinrichtungen bis zur Einschulung

Ireland

• Aistear – The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework: Principles and themes; Guidelines for good practice; User guide; Key messages from the research papers;

Israel

• Preschool Educational Practice: Guidelines for preschool teachers (add link from SharePoint)

Italy

• Indicazioni per il curricolo per la scuola dell’infanzia e per il primo ciclo d’istruzione

Luxembourg

• Plan d’études : école fondamentale  

Mexico

• Modelo de Educación Inicial del Conafe

New Zealand

• Te Whariki: Early Childhood Curriculum

Norway

• Framework Plan for the Content and Tasks of Kindergartens

Portugal

• Ministério da Educaçao Metas de Aprendizagem website

Singapore

• A Framework For A Kindergarten Curriculum In Singapore

Slovak Republic

• The National Educational Programme: ISCED 0 – pre-primary education

Sweden

• Curriculum for the pre-school Lpfö 98

Turkey

• Preschool Education Programme (for children 36-72 months old)

United Kingdom

• England: Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage
• England: Department for Children, Schools and Families: Early Years – The Music Issue
• Scotland:Birth to Three – Supporting our youngest children
• Scotland: Curriculum for Excellence (3-18 years)
• BBC Early Years Foundation Stage website

United States

• Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework  (Office of Head Start, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start Resource Center, 2010)
• State Early Learning Guidelines  (National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center, 2011)

Improving qualifications, training and working conditions

Australia

• Early Years Learning Framework: Professional Learning Program website
• Policy Overview: Impact Statement for Early Childhood Education and Care Quality Reforms
• Investing in the Early Years – A National Early Childhood Development Strategy Regulation
• National ECEC Workforce Census 2010 – Results
• Initiatives to support the ECEC workforce
• Productivity Commission study into the Early Childhood Development Workforce

Belgium-French Community

• Programme de formations : 0-3 ans
• Programme de formations : 3-12 years

Ireland

• A workforce development plan for the early childhood care and education sector in Ireland
• Developing the workforce in the early childhood care and education sector: Background discussion paper

New Zealand

• Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration
• Ministry of Education ECE Educate website

Norway

• National Centres provide online training for the following topics: Multiculturalism;ICT in education; Natural Sciences; Mathematics; Reading and Language; New Norwegian; Arts, Crafts and Culture   

United States

• 2010 NAEYC Standards for Initial and Advanced Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2011)

Engaging families and community

Australia

• Early childhood literacy and numeracy: Building good practice
• Belonging, Being and Becoming: Information for Families
• Literacy: Watching and listening develops language
• Numeracy: ‘More’ and ‘less’ are about comparing things

Denmark

• From Library to Community centre - Evaluation of Community Center Gellerup

Norway

• Eight themes on positive interaction

United Kingdom

• Families in the Foundation Years website
• BBC Early Years Foundation Stage website

United States

• The Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework: Promoting Family Engagement and School Readiness, from Prenatal to Age 8  (Office of Head Start, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start Resource Center, 2011)

Advancing data collection, research and monitoring

DATA

Australia

• Online child care portal: mychild.gov.au website
• State of Child Care in Australia
• National ECEC Workforce Census 2010 – Results
• Australia Early Development Index website

Canada

• The State of Data on Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada: National Data Project Final Report
• Gathering Labour Market Information on Canada’s Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce:Data Collection Methods and Classification Systems

Sweden

• Skolverket website: Information on the National Agency for Education’s statistics

United States

• The State of Preschool 2010 State Preschool Yearbook, Barnett, W.S., et al. (2011), The National Institute for Early Education and Research, Rutgers University

RESEARCH

• Overview of key longitudinal studies and examples of findings
• Overview of key research on ECEC programmes from the United States

Australia

• Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children website
• Footprints in Time - The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) website

Belgium – French Community

• Recherches en éducation : grandir en l'an 2000 site web

Canada

• National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth Survey Overview for the 2008/2009 Data Collection Cycle 8
• National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) website
• Québec: La qualité, ça compte! : Résultats de l’Étude longitudinale du développement des enfants du Québec concernant la qualité des services de garde

Denmark

• Long-Run Benefits from Universal High-Quality Pre-Schooling
• Knowledge-based Efforts for Socially Disadvantaged Children in Day-Care project website
• The Danish Longitudinal Survey of Children (DALSC) website

Finland

• Department of Teacher Education: Research group for Early childhood education and learning website
• Socca – The Centre of Excellence on Social Welfare in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area website

Ireland

• Growing Up in Ireland: National Longitudinal Study of Children website

New Zealand

• Growing Up in New Zealand

Norway

• Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study
• Norwegian Educational Research towards 2020 (UTDANNING2020) website
• Practice-based Educational Research (PRAKUT) website

Slovenia

• Abstract: Effects of pre-school on child development and school achievement

United Kingdom

• Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project website
• Millennium Cohort Study Briefing 1: Parent relationships and child wellbeing
• Northern Ireland: Effective Pre-school Provision in Northern Ireland (EPPNI) Summary Report
• Scotland:  Growing Up in Scotland study

United States

• Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) program website Birth (ECLS-B) and Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K) Cohorts (National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education) 
• The National Children’s Study website (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institute of Health)

MONITORING

Systems/Reports

Australia

• National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care
• Child Care Vacancies Quarterly Snapshot
• Child Care Update

Czech Republic

• Czech School Inspection website

Ireland

• Insights on Quality: A National Review of Policy, Practice and Research Relating to Quality in Early Childhood Care and Education in Ireland 1990-2004

Sweden

• Ten years after the pre-school reform: A national evaluation of the Swedish pre-school

United Kingdom

• Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills website

United States

• Head Start Program Performance Standards and Other Regulations (45 CFR Chapter XIII, Government Printing Office, October 1, 2009)
• Compendium of Quality Rating Systems and Evaluations  (Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services, April 2010)

Instruments

• Summary: Methods of monitoring
• International Step by Step Association: Step by Step Teacher Standards Observation Form

Australia

• Australian Early Development Index Checklist Questions

Belgium - Flanders

• Getting started with SiCs checklist

Canada

• Ontario: Early Development Instrument: A Population-Based Measure for Communities Ontario 2010/2011

Portugal

• Creche: Visita de Acompanhamento Técnico

United States

• Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, and How
• University of North Carolina Environment Rating Scales: Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale website;Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale, Revised Edition website; Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scales website
• Pearson Assessments: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition website

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