This blog features Dr. Cecelia Cassell, Dean of the William V.S. Tubman Teachers College at the University of Liberia, and chair of the CATALYZE T4ECE Liberia Task Force. Over the next year, the University of Liberia will be leading the T4ECE Liberia Task Force as they work towards developing a standardized and national tool for assessment early learning outcomes and school readiness. Read more as Dr. Cassell reflects on the progresses made and what is to come as Liberia moves forward with its vision to create a national integrated ECD data collection and management system.

This blog features Colin Almeleh, the Director of Knowledge, Information and Data Solutions at Ilifa Labantwana.  Over the next year, Ilifa Labantwana will be leading the T4ECE South Africa Task Force as they build consensus around a set of key indicators to be included in a new ECD M&E Framework for the National ECD Policy. Read more as Colin reflects on the progresses made in South Africa and his hopes and vision for what is to come.

In this blog, we hear from colleagues in Guinea Bissau about how using the BEQI has created a ripple effect throughout the entire education system, helping to legitimize ECE within the broader system, and becoming the impetus for creating a data-driven quality ECE system.

Dr. Joan Lombardi, a guest author for ECD Measure, reflects on issues in the early childhood measurement and evidence field.

This blog provides an overall summary to the Together for Early Childhood Evidence 2-day workshop in Mauritius in October 2022.

In this blog, we hear from the Liberia T4ECE country task force team about their experience in developing a catalogue of ECE programs and quality indicators and how the data collected will be used to help focus and manage resources to improve the quality of ECE in Liberia.

This blog explores how nationally representative classroom observational data collected in Rwanda by government officials will be used to make positive impacts on the quality of early learning and how the T4ECE team hopes this will create a shift in the culture of data communication and data use.

In this blog, we feature the Thrive by Five Index, South Africa’s first nationally representative survey of preschool children. It provides data on 4-5-year-old children’s developmental outcomes that will inspire action and change so that all children have the chance to flourish by the age of five.

In this blog, we hear from Dr. Menelik Desta, Executive Director of ESRI, and Professor Belay Kibret of Addis Ababa University as they discuss the T4ECE task force team's experience in synthesizing and compiling ECDE evidence and resources in Ethiopia.

As part of the 2022 CIES conference, Together for Early Childhood Evidence led a panel focused on country-led research activities in Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda and South Africa that support strengthening and developing effective early childhood monitoring and measurement systems.

This blog focuses on our team's work using human-centered design to think about how measurement tools and systems can respond to the needs of early childhood teachers and providers. 

In this blog we hear from Save the Children Rwanda as they, with the support of T4ECE, collect for the first time ever nationally representative data on the quality of pre-primary and primary classroom and children's learning outcomes.

This blog features work in Liberia to adapt and use ECD Measure's Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory (BEQI) to help Liberian researchers and policymakers understand the current state of preschool quality and make choices about how to improve.

This blog highlights the process and experience of building Ethiopia’s first national study of early childhood quality and outcomes using the MELQO.

We now know that quality early childhood programs can have a lasting positive impact. But we know less about how to translate that science into workable solutions for programs around the world. While there is increasing interest in measuring the quality of preschool environments, a challenge comes in creating feedback loops where quality data lead to improved teaching and learning processes.

We’re increasingly recognizing the power of play for children. Children learn best when they are supported to deeply engage with their surroundings and other people, when they are given the opportunity to explore and try things out, and when they can internalize and make meaning of what they are learning.

Family child care is extremely important to many families with young children. Often run by independent small business owners, family child care providers balance caring for children with all of the functions of running a small business. To help support these critical early childhood professionals, ECD Measure has partnered with the Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative (NECC) to use the Brief Early Quality Inventory (BEQI) observation tool and BEQI self-assessment as part of NECC’s new Family Child Care Network initiative to providers in Nebraska.

The main goal of having early childhood education (ECE) data is to inform planning, resource allocation, and support, and to address the challenges of quality and access. The South Africa team completed CPDMA Diagnostic Toolkit in 2019 and identified data needs at two levels: service delivery (for parents, teachers and school administrators) and policy level (for district-, state- and national-level governments).

Mozambique is at a critical moment for early childhood education (ECE). Following the large-scale pilot of a community-based ECE program (known by its Portuguese acronym DICIPE- Desenvolvimento Integral da Criança em Idade Pré-Escolar), the country is now planning for the future scale-up of ECE interventions. A series of three separate evaluations of the pilot—a Process Evaluation, an Impact Evaluation, and a Costing Exercise—are in progress to help improve program quality and inform the scaling up of services.

In recent years, more and more children worldwide have access to pre-primary education. As access expands, it’s important to keep our attention focused on quality – the elements of the learning environment that determine children’s experiences in early childhood education. Quality can be viewed from a child’s viewpoint – what she gets to do during the day; how she feels about her teachers and friends; and whether she has opportunities to stretch and grow while receiving help when she needs it.