Teacher Information & Training Session

THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT INSTRUMENT (EDI)

A large number of children at a small risk for school failure may generate a much greater burden of suffering than a small number of children with a high risk

(Based on Rose 1992, Offord et al. 1998)

Today’s Presentation

1. WHY CARE ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

2. WHY THE EDI3. BACKGROUND4. WHO IS USING IT5. COMPLETING THE QUESTIONNAIRES

1. WHY CARE ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOOD

DEVELOPMENT?

EARLY YEARS MATTER:

They set the stage for further development

Binocular vision

0 1 2 3 7654

High

Low

Years

Habitual ways of respondingLanguageEmotional

controlSymbolPeer social

skillsRelative quantity

Central auditory system

Hertzman , 2007

‘Sensitive periods’ in early Brain Development

EARLY YEARS MATTER:

• Child’s experiences in the early years of life are pivotal for how the genes that govern many aspects of neurobiological development are expressed

• Child’s capacity to learn when they enter school is strongly influenced by the neural wiring that takes place in the early years

Readiness to learn concept

Children are born ready to learn:

the neurosystem is pre-programmed to develop various skills and neuropathways, depending on the experience it receives.

School Readiness

Refers to the child’s ability to meet the task demands of school, such as:

• being comfortable exploring and asking questions,• listening to the teacher,• playing and working with other children,• remembering and following rules.

In short, it is the ability to benefit from the educational activities that are provided by the school.

School Readiness involves…

ready children

ready parents

ready communities

ready policy

ready schools

2. WHY THE EDI?

BenefitsResults from the Early Development Instrument

(or EDI) will enable us to:

• Look forward – adjust school programs to meet the current needs of incoming students (schools).

• Look backward – adjust early childhood programs to help ensure children are ready to learn and make it easier for them to make the transition to school (community).

Benefits cont’d

• Schools use EDI data by itself for program planning.

• Community uses EDI data in conjunction with other information (e.g., EQAO results, population statistics, other community information) to identify neighbourhoods where additional early years supports may be required.

Canadian Association of Principals

“EDI data in conjunction with other data can be used to create, maintain, and monitor community support for programs and policies affecting young children…. Analysis can increase public understanding of the factors which contribute to early child development, inspiring a commitment to fundraising, policy development and other initiatives.”

Source: Canadian Association of Principals – Student Readiness to Learn and the School Ready to Teach: an Internet Essay and Collection of Selected Documents: www.schoolfile.com/cap_start/schoolready.html (2003)

3. BACKGROUND OF THE EDI

What is the EDI

• The EDI is teacher-completed checklist that assesses children’s readiness to learn before they enter formal schooling (Grade 1).

• In other words, it measures the outcomes of children’s pre-school experiences as they influence their readiness to learn at school.

• As a result, the EDI is able to predict how children will do in elementary school.

How the EDI works

The EDI assesses children’s readiness to learn when they enter school by looking at five key areas of child development:

1) Physical health and well-being

2-3) Maturity2) Emotional health and maturity

3) Social knowledge and competence

4) Language development and

thinking skills

5) Communication

skills and general knowledge

•The EDI is……..

–A population (or large group) measure

–A way to understand trends in the development of kindergarten children

•The EDI is not……..

–An individual child or diagnostic measure

–A way to evaluate teachers or individual programs

Who Developed It?

• The EDI was developed at McMaster University’s Offord Centre for Child Studies in 1997.

• The instrument was designed and tested in collaboration with teachers and educators.

Teachers’ Input

• In the process of development, the EDI was streamlined using further input from teachers.

• Questions that did not seem clear enough, or did not bring any new information, have been removed.

Validity Testing

• The EDI has undergone extensive pilot testing, and has been compared with direct assessment results and parent reports.

• It has also been repeated on the same group of children within a short space of time.

• The EDI demonstrated reliability in all these tests.

4. WHO IS USING IT?

Across Canada:

1999-2007 over 520 000 children

• Full provincial coverage in Ontario, Manitoba and BC

• Implementations in Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Newfoundland, PEI, New Brunswick, Nunavut

• Only region not covered is Yukon

Internationally: Australia (full coverage)USA - a few isolated sitesChileNew Zealand JamaicaKosovoMexicoInterest: UK, Israel, Cuba

5. COMPLETING THE

QUESTIONNAIRES

Implementation Timelines, Deadlines

1.Teachers receive EDI package(s) at their school by internal courier

2.Teachers complete EDI questionnaires

3.Teachers put completed questionnaires into internal courier system

- Insert Date

- Insert Date

- Insert Date

Why this part is important to you?

• You will have only 20 minutes to complete each questionnaire.

• The first 2-3 questionnaires may take more time than the average 20 minutes.

• However, once you have completed a few, it should take closer to 10 minutes per questionnaire.

Tip # 1• Due to the “learning curve” involved, it is

considerably more efficient to complete all the questionnaires in one sitting.

One sitting may involve 2 or 3 consecutive days, depending on the number of students you have.

Getting Started: Your EDI Package

1) Additional Explanatory Notes for Teachers

2) Teacher Participation Form3) EDI Guide4) ClassList from McMaster5) Local Class List6) EDI questionnaires, individually labeled7) A blank EDI questionnaire

Around insert date you will receive an EDI package containing the following items:

(One per teacher)

(One per class)

(One per teacher)

(One per class)

(One per class)

(One per child)

(One per teacher)

Teacher Participation Form

• Please complete one per class after the completion of your class EDIs.

• Helps us keep everything organized when you return the questionnaires to us.

• It also provides information on the general characteristics of the population of teachers and their experience with the EDI.

• It is not intended for evaluation of any sort. The information will be examined as a whole, not on an individual basis.

EDI Guide

• Intended to facilitate completion of the EDI; based on comments from teachers.

• Please read the whole Guide once before starting to complete the questionnaires.

• Open to further comments: If you have comments pertaining to the guide, please write them on a separate sheet of paper and enclose with your completed questionnaires.

Tip # 2

• Read the entire EDI GUIDE once before starting on the questionnaires.

• After you have read the EDI Guide, consult it only if in doubt.

YOU ARE NOW READY TO TACKLE THE

QUESTIONNAIRES!

General Instructions

• Please use a blue or black ball-point pen.

• If you make a mistake, do not use white-out. Put a large X over the wrong answer and put a clean mark in the correct circle.

• The child does not need to be there when you complete the questionnaire. Base your answers on your observations and overall impressions of the child.

• Responses to the questions should be based on your observations of the students reflecting his/her CURRENT developmental status

• Use ‘I don’t know’ as a last resort only, especially in the student demographic page (page 1). Questionnaires received with too many ‘I don’t knows’ cannot be used in the final analysis.

EDI Questionnaire: Overview

• 4 double-sided pages, Scantron-type

• First page – identifying information.

• Remainder – 5 sections (labeled A-E),

based on the 5 key areas of child development

Step 1: Verify school and teacher information

• Look at the label in the top right corner of the questionnaire.

• Confirm that the School and Teacher information is correct.

• If School and Teacher information does not appear on the label, please print it clearly in the spaces provided.

Step 2: Identify the child

• In the top right corner of the form is an 11-digit child identification number (generated by McMaster University) called the EDI ID#.

• To find the child’s name, you will need to cross-reference the child’s EDI ID# with both the ClassList (generated by McMaster University) and the Local Class List (generated by school boards).

ClassList from McMaster

CLASSLIST

School Name Teacher Name EDI ID# Local ID# DOB Gender

Valley School Mrs. X 02900101102 75-02 14/09/99 fValley School Mrs. X 02900101103 75-09 07/04/99 m Valley School Mrs. X 02900101104 75-03 15/02/99 fValley School Mrs. X 02900101105 75-15 21/06/99 m

• Find the EDI ID# from the questionnaire on this ClassList.

• Cross-reference the corresponding Local ID# with the Local Class List (see next slide).

Local Class List

• Use the Local ID # from the previous step to find the name of the child.

School Name

Teacher Name

Local ID

Last Name

First Name BOB Gender

Postal Code

Valley School Mrs. X 75-02 Bouchal Claire 14 9 1999 M N7V1B3

Valley School Mrs. X 75-09 Smith John 7 4 1999 F N7V1N4

Valley School Mrs. X 75-03 Jones Brigette 15 2 1999 F N7V1H7

Valley School Mrs. X 75-15 Reagan Mikey 21 6 1999 F N7H1S1

Step 3: Confirm the child’s identity

• Quickly double-check that the DOB, Gender and Postal Code on the bottom half of the label on the questionnaire is the same as the information on the Local Class List.

• This will confirm that the questionnaire is indeed for that child.

Missing or incorrect label information

If any of the information on the label (top right corner of the EDI questionnaire) is incorrect or missing, enter the correct information in:

• the label

and

• the Scantron section on page 1 by filling in the appropriate circles

What if I can’t find a pre-labeled questionnaire for a child in my class?

If there are not enough forms for everyone (e.g., new child in your class):

• Take the blank EDI questionnaire and make as many photocopies as you need.

How to complete a blank questionnaire

• Take the 9-digit Teacher ID # from the Teacher Demographic Form and write it in the label at the top of the EDI questionnaire.

• Next, enter the child’s date of birth, gender, and postal code both in the label and by filling out the Scantron section on page 1.

• Proceed with the rest of the EDI questionnaire as usual.

What if a child has moved to another school?

• The teacher who has had the student for the longer duration should complete a blank EDI for that child.

• The teacher who has had the student for the shorter period and was sent a questionnaire on that child should mark “moved” on the form and include it with the other questionnaires to be returned.

What if 2 teachers teach the same class (job sharing)?

• Only one questionnaire per student should be filled out.

IMPORTANT!!

Q 7 Special Needs – Cannot be left blank!! A professional must identify the child as special

needs, this is not meant to be an assessment by the teacher. For example a child identified already as needing special assistance due to chronic medical, physical, or mental disabling conditions (e.g., autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, Down syndrome) and/or a child requires special assistance in the classroom. Please see Guide for provincially specific SN definition.

Q 8 ESL

Refers to a child for whom English is NOT their first language AND who needs additional instruction in English. A child is NOT considered ESL if his/her first language is English, or the child is able to speak another language apart from English, but whose English is fluent, or a child whose first language (developmentally) is not English but whose English is fluent.

IMPORTANT!!

REMAINDER OF THEEDI QUESTIONNAIRE

...

EDI – Section E

• Asks questions about pre-school experiences, if known (e.g., child care)

• Space for additional comments, if any

Teacher Participation Form

• When do you complete the form?• When you have completed your EDIs

• How do you complete the form?• One form for each class you teach

• Why do you need to complete the form?

Privacy and Confidentiality

•All information collected is kept completely confidential and used for statistical purposes only

•Parents are informed about the research by letter; participation is voluntary; consent is passive

•NO CHILD OR TEACHER IS EVER IDENTIFIED IN OUR REPORTING

YOUR SCHOOL’S EDI CONTACT

Insert your school’s EDI contact info here

QUESTIONS?