3-135 - Assessing Children’s Academic and Social Skills in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Implications for Developmental Science

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

As countries invest more resources into early childhood programs and policies, demand for reliable measurement of early childhood development and learning increases as well. The Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes was initiated in 2014 by UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, and Brookings Institution to support feasible, actionable measurement in low- and middle-income countries, by identifying a common set of items intended to be relevant across contexts for children between three and six years of age. Items to measure “school readiness” were identified based on existing research and assessments, drawing heavily from theories and science on early development from high-income countries. This panel reports on findings from this project from four low- and middle-income countries, with emphasis on addressing two key areas with implications for both developmental science and practice: 1) patterns in early mathematics and literacy development across a set of low- and middle-income countries; and 2) themes and points of alignment between teacher, parent and direct assessments of children’s development and learning. Three papers will be presented, all drawing from the MELQO project but examining measurement of children’s development from multiple angles. Presentations will focus on the extent to which items seem to describe similar patterns of development across countries, or conversely, whether there are notable differences in the ages at which children achieve certain skills or the interrelations between aspects of development in different countries. How measurement can be used to inform developmental science will also be discussed.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Abbie Raikes, University of Nebraska College of Public Health

Discussant

• Abbie Raikes, University of Nebraska College of Public Health

Individual Presentations

• MELQO Mathematical Domain Task Performance Across Countries - Presenting Author: Linda Michele Platas, San Francisco State University

• Investigations into the MELQO Language and Literacy Tasks: Developmental Patterns and Correlations - Presenting Author: Patricia Kariger, University of California; Linda Michele Platas, San Francisco State University; Paul Dizona, University of Nebraska

• Gathering Information from Children, Parents, and Teachers: Cross-Informant Reliability of Assessment of Child Development - Presenting Author: Magdalena Janus, McMaster University; Eric Duku, McMaster University