Table 4 Definitions, measurement options and issues in measuring ECCE quality
From: Global tracking of access and quality in early childhood care and education
Process quality | Structural quality | Quality as defined by child development outcomes | |
|---|---|---|---|
How “quality” is defined in this conceptualization | Quality of interactions, access to learning materials and activities within early childhood settings | Qualifications of teachers, ratios, curriculum, and physical environments | Children’s achievement of developmental goals or milestones |
How to measure | Observational measures conducted by trained observers for 2–4 h, many of which were originally developed for use in research | Most structural indicators do not require observation. Government or program reporting on teachers, ratios, use of curricula and safety of environments | Teacher/parent report on children’s development or assessment of children by trained assessors using validated measurement tools |
Ability to make cross-country comparisons | Although several measures show validity within multiple countries, ability to make formal cross-country comparisons is not yet established | Can be defined and measured in similar ways across countries, based on global definitions | Some measures intended for global monitoring in use or under development. Degree of cross-cultural applicability varies by individual measure |
Applicability across types of early childhood care and education programs | For most used observational measures, applicability across public/private, home-based and center-based facilities is not yet established | With some adjustment for different types of settings (i.e., home-based vs. center-based), may be possible to report across types of ECCE | Applicable across settings, but cross-age comparisons (i.e., between younger and older children) attending different types of programs (such as preschool vs. infant/toddler programs) may not be possible |
Advantages | Provides measures of quality most directly related to child outcomes | Requires least amount of resource to measure consistently if all programs can be identified and included | Maintains strong focus on achievement of goals for children’s development |
Disadvantages | Requires extensive training and resources to measure process quality reliably; depends on willingness of programs to participate in government monitoring | May not provide enough information on ECCE quality to adequately inform policies and practices that most strongly predict child development | Provides little to no insight on what aspects of the environment need to change to promote children’s development |