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 brief provides an overview of country-led T4ECE research projects focused on addressing gaps in evidence and data-driven decision-making in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, and South Africa.

Together for Early Childhood Evidence convened a panel at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Conference to share country-level plans for research in Malawi, Rwanda, Liberia, and South Africa to advance goals for data-driven early childhood systems.

Drawing on principles of mixed methods design, this study reports on a new approach to ECCE quality measurement: the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory. Using data from the USA, Liberia, and Colombia, results indicate variation in the items perceived as highly relevant to each setting and in the characteristics of classrooms including the degree of child autonomy, the types of activities, and in child/educator interactions and dialogue.

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.

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 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.

ECD Measure has recently developed the Brief Early Quality Inventory (BEQI) tool, which is designed to capture key components of play-based learning and interactions between teachers and children. Building off of research from other ECE quality tools, including our team’s extensive experience with the Measuring Early Learning Environment (MELE) tool of the MELQO project, we recognized the need for simpler ways to gather context-specific evidence on quality environments.

Four CPDMA taskforce countries (Liberia, Rwanda, South Africa and Ethiopia) have been working together since early 2019 to map out their ECE data systems and develop plans to use data to improve outcomes for children.

CPDMA Member Spotlight on Liberia. Liberia is at a critical moment for early childhood education. According to the 2019 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, 88 percent of Liberian children are enrolled in an ECE program at least one year before primary school entry. However, it is common for overage children to enter ECE programs; nearly 50 percent of pre-primary learners are 6 years of age or older.