Government investment in early childhood education and care (ECEC) supports children’s ongoing development, learning and wellbeing, and delivers the skills and knowledge required for a thriving society and economy. Assessing the efficiency of this investment, as well as methods for ongoing monitoring are important steps in delivering effective early experiences for children that optimise early learning and improve life chances for all Australian children.
The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) aims to lay the groundwork for a stronger, smarter ECEC system – one that maximises the potential of education data to improve policy and practice, towards excellence and equity in learning and development for all Australian children. In 2023, AERO partnered with the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) Child Development and Early Education Group at The University of Queensland to examine how specific aspects of quality in ECEC relate to learning and development outcomes for children in Australia.
For this study, the researchers analysed 2 pre-existing population datasets:
- the Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA; formerly Multi-Agency Data Integration Project [MADIP])
- the Effective Early Educational Experiences (E4Kids) longitudinal study.
This technical report presents the findings from this study. Our related research summary summarises the key findings.
AERO would like to acknowledge QBI for preparing this technical report.
Keywords: child development, actionable insights