Measuring early learning and development across cultures: Invariance of the IDELA across five countries.

Abstract

Save the Children, Washington, DCRelatively little research has addressed whether conceptual frameworks of early learning generalize across different national contexts. This article reports on a cross-country measurement invariance analysis of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA). The IDELA is a direct assessment tool for 3-to 6-year-old children, intended to measure Early Literacy, Early Numeracy, Motor, and Social-Emotional development. Its generalizability is evaluated using samples from 5 countries: Afghanistan (N ϭ 2,629); Bolivia (N ϭ 480); Ethiopia (N ϭ 682); Uganda (N ϭ 504); and Vietnam (N ϭ 675). The 4-domain model of the IDELA was supported in each country, although the domains were highly correlated. Measurement invariance analysis revealed that most IDELA items do not provide a basis for comparing children's development over the 5 countries. This research supports the use of the IDELA for program evaluation and within-country monitoring purposes, but cautions against its use for international comparisons.

The role of executive function and social‐emotional skills in the development of literacy and numeracy during preschool: a cross‐lagged longitudinal study

“…Wolf et al (2017) found strong support for a four-factor model (including items measuring motor skills but not EF), compared to other alternative factor structures in Ethiopia. A follow-up study replicated the factor structure in four additional low-and middle-income countries and found evidence of partial measurement invariance for each domain across the four countries (Halpin et al, 2019). Accordingly, in this study we operationalize each domain-numeracy, literacy, EF, and SE-as a unidimensional construct.…”

“…The tool used to measure SE in this study-the IDELA-was designed for global use, yet is grounded in Western constructs of social and emotional skills (Pisani et al, 2018). Although the IDELA has been found to demonstrate measurement invariance across five diverse countries in three regions (Halpin et al, 2019), it does not necessarily capture the full range of social and emotional competencies that may be important for school success in the Ghanaian cultural context. A measure that specifically operationalizes children's competence in interpersonal relationships within the Ghanaian classroom context may identify skills necessary for learning that are not captured by IDELA.…”

“…Similar work does not yet exist in sub-Saharan Africa, and thus we do not have a strong psychometric evidence base from which to operationalize SE and EF constructs in this sample. We follow two recent studies that support a unidimensional operationalization of literacy, numeracy, SE, and EF skills using the items from the IDELA (Halpin et al, 2019;Wolf et al, 2017), a newly available tool specifically designed for measurement of early development in resource-limited settings. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that future work is needed to examine the components and factor structure of these domains in sub-Saharan Africa.…”

Longitudinal causal impacts of preschool teacher training on Ghanaian children’s school readiness: Evidence for persistence and fade‐out

“…See Pisani et al () for details on the development of the IDELA items. Recent studies have assessed the psychometric properties and factor structure of the IDELA (Wolf et al, ), as well as the measurement invariance of the factors across five countries (Halpin et al, ).…”

“…SeePisani et al (2018) for details on the development of the IDELA items. Recent studies have assessed the psychometric properties and factor structure of the IDELA, as well as the measurement invariance of the factors across five countries(Halpin et al, 2019).Early literacy consisted of 38 items grouped into six constructs: print awareness, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, oral comprehension, emergent writing, and expressive vocabulary.An example subtask on phonological awareness asked children to identify words that begin with the same sound (e.g. 'Here is my friend mouse.…”