Preschool Quality and Child Development

Improving Preschool Provision and Encouraging Demand: Heterogeneous Impacts of a Large-Scale Program

“…Classroom observations show that CPS were substantially better than IPS in structural quality, and similar to SPS in this dimension (teacher characteristics and classroom setup were similar, classroom equipment was actually better in CPS than SPS); they also show that curriculum content and quality of pedagogy, as well as the frequency and quality of teacher-child interactions, were only slightly better in CPS than IPS-while those in SPS were substantially better. Our results are therefore consistent with the literature showing that pedagogical practices and the quality of teacher-child interactions are particularly important for child development (Araujo et al, 2016;Araujo, Dormal and Schady, 2019;Andrew et al, 2019).…”

“…Recent evidence on teacher training programs show mixed effects with positive impacts often fading out quickly (Yoshikawa et al, 2015;Ozler et al, 2018;Wolf et al, 2019). Yet, in a large experiment in Colombian public preschools, Andrew et al (2019) show that pedagogical training can improve the learning environment and children's cognitive development while improvements in structural quality alone do not. Through detailed classroom observations, we are able to explore the degree to which the establishment of the new preschools improved structural and process quality of CPS compared to its alternatives in Cambodia and how this mediates the effectiveness of the intervention.…”

“…While preschool programs can be highly effective, much of this evidence is based on relatively small targeted programs (Gertler et al, 2014;Elango et al, 2015). Whether positive effects on early development can be sustainably engendered through large-scale programs is less clear, particularly when the quality of services is low (Engle et al, 2011;Britto, Yoshikawa and Boller, 2011;Ichino, Fort and Zanella, 2019;Andrew et al, 2019) or services are not accessed by children who might benefit from them (Cornelissen et al, 2018). This is the case for high-income as well as low-and middle-income countries.…”

Quality and Inequality in Pre-Primary and Home Environment Inputs to Early Childhood Development in Egypt

“…However, effect sizes linking quality environments with child development are small (e.g., Brunsek et al, 2017;Perlman et al, 2016), highlighting both measurement challenges in capturing the complexity of learning environments (Burchinal, 2018) and multiple influences on children's development. Existing work in many LMICs demonstrates associations between aspects of quality in pre-primary settings and ECD (Aboud, Hossain, & O'Gara, 2008;Andrew et al, 2022;Brinkman et al, 2017;McCoy & Wolf, 2018;Mwaura, Sylva, & Malmberg, 2008;Raikes, Koziol, Davis, & Burton, 2020;Rao, 2010;Rao, Richards, Sun, Weber, & Sincovich, 2019). But similar to HICs, research in LMICs has demonstrated small but significant associations between pre-primary quality and ECD, albeit with many of the same challenges noted in research on HICs (Chen & Wolf, 2021).…”