KEYPOINT‘S FROM THE EARLY YEARS STUDY 3: MAKING DECISIONS TAKING ACTION CHAPTER NOTES:

Introduction: Foundations are stepping up for children Page 2 Introduction: Mother’s and Other’s Needed for Healthy Human Development: Page 3 Chapter 1: A Smart Start for School and for Life: Pages 4-5 Chapter 2: Early Life and Learning, Behaviour and Health Pages 6-7 Chapter 3: Creating Spaces and Places for Young Children and Families: Pages 7-9 Chapter 4: Early childhood Education as Economic Development: Pages 10-12 Chapter 5: Public Policy Shapes Early Childhood Programs Pages 13-15 Chapter 6: Where Are We? How Far Do We Have To Go? Pages 15-16

THE EARLY YEARS STUDY 3 REVIEW [LIZ’S CONDENSED NOTES & KEY POINTS]

Notes have been taken from the EY Study 3 research paper and condensed by chapter (McCain, M.N., mustard, J.F., & McCuaig, K. (2011). Early Years Study 3: Making Decisions, Taking Action. Toronto: Margaret & Wallace McCain Family Foundation). Statistics in Green font as well as the graphs & tables displayed have been taken directly from the paper. DAC for Timiskaming OEYC 1/1/2012

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Introduction: Foundations are stepping up for children:

• Outcomes of Québec’s “un Québec fou de ses enfants” have been tracked by academics in many fields and the results have been truly amazing:

1. Low cost children’s programming and $7/day daycare make it viable for more women to work 2. More women working which in itself pays for the program 3. Québec’s child poverty rates have been slashed 4. Women are having more babies despite working more 5. Dads are more involved in child rearing 6. Student test scores have gone from below Canadian average to above it!

• Need to broaden scope of government’s responsibility for young children and their families (want

Early Years public investment $’s comparable to that given to the education of the 6-12 year old age group)

• Permanent change can only come through public policy. • Funders’ like the Lawson & Aitkinson Foundations are helping bridge the gap & are even joining

forces with government ministries to bring attention and research to the Early Years. • Government’s confidence is boosted by pilot projects like “Toronto’s First Duty” because it allows

them to see the future in action!

82% Quebec dads who take parental leave 12% Dads in the rest of Canada who take parental leave 50% Reduction in child poverty in Quebec since 1998 6% Canadian GDP to educate children 6–18-years-old

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Introduction: Mother’s and other’s needed for healthy human development:

• Social changes have trailed the economic realities of our evolved societies (for i.e.; the significant changes in the role and rights of women).

• The education of women is strongly linked to lower fertility rates and to the survival, health and educational achievement of their children.

• In historic terms, children without committed nurturing rarely lived to adulthood. In rich nations, children can survive poor nutrition, neglect and even abuse, but it leads to a proportion of the adult population with learning, behaviour and health difficulties.

• Equity in early child human development requires others to support the mother during early development.

• Countries that invest in women as active members of the labour force show much better population performance in education, behaviour and health than countries that do not.

• It is better for the child and less costly for society to provide a positive beginning, rather than having to resort to remedial action later on.

• Countries with developed preschool systems link their programs to education. • Parental leave policies that recognize the benefits of breastfeeding and parental attachment,

and that allow new parents to ease back in to the workplace are also essential.

10 million Children who die worldwide before their fifth birthday 750 million World population in 1750 6.9 billion World population in 2011 3 million Illiterate adults in Canada 68 Life expectancy in Canada in 1950 80.4 Life expectancy in Canada in 2005

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Chapter 1: A Smart Start for School and for Life:

• In Canada, it is between the end of parental leave and the beginning of schooling that supports for families break down and public policy is confused about what to do.

• Toronto’s First Duty is a pilot project designed to combine 3 service silos: 1. Regulated child care 2. Kindergarten 3. Parenting supports

• First Duty receives no more resources than any other school in the community-they just use them differently.

• The growth in the use of child care is not just an urban phenomenon; it is even more pronounced in rural areas [rural families use of daycare has gone up from 36% in 1995 to 52% in 2003]

• The less affluent the family, the less likely their children are to attend an ECE centre • The quest to find and keep childcare determines the families’socioeconomic well-being • Canada spends one quarter less on cash and family benefits that the OECD average (Australia and

UK are the leaders) • One in ten children live in poverty in Canada • Poverty rate is 21% in one income households but only 4% if two or more are working. • Just having children puts couples at a 40% risk of poverty and lone parents have a 50% chance of

being poor. • At age 1, children in Sweden, Denmark and Finland are entitled to a preschool program- and in

France and Belgium by age 2 children regularly attend preschool. • Canadian Governments have been more comfortable transferring payments rather than directly

investing in services. • If parental leave is extended to 18 months, it would be relatively easy to bridge the gap between

leave and school (Québec has the most generous parental leave in Can.) • Country wide data shows that 1 in 4 children arrive at Kindergarten with vulnerabilities that make

them more likely to fail. Most vulnerable kids do not dwell in poverty; they live in upper and middle income households and neighbourhoods.

• The learning gap between middle income children and those born to the wealthy is just as big as the gap that separates low-income children from the middle class children.

• Health care pays out 5 times more to a senior than to a child • Our democracy is in trouble- only 50 % of Canadians are voting!!!! YIKES- and those who

are voting are older adults and seniors who are not so concerned with the Early Years. The more absent the concerns of the young are from public discourse, the more alienated they become.

• The Conference Board of Canada found that the most frazzled employee is the professional mother • Researchers have connected chronic parent stress to the poor academic record of children. • Social cohesion brings a sense of individual security and belonging that trumps socioeconomic status

when it comes to positive outcomes… Dr. Fraser Mustard relates that kittens and puppies raised together grow up to be cats and dogs that get along; the same can be said of people.

• Integration is tough work, but it creates the foundation for growth • The education system is a natural fit with the EY as education is universal and well-established,

therefore, from here a modern understanding can be born that learning begins at birth and continues throughout life.

• In Canada, the biggest contributor to population growth is immigration • Declining fertility has giving rise to smaller families

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• In Canada, senior citizens could more than double by 2032 which would mean they would outnumber children for the first time.

• Canada has one of the highest rates of mothers working outside the home among OECD countries- over 70% with EY age kids are in the work force

• Our Aboriginal population is growing due to higher fertility rates than the rest of the population as well as increased self-identity.

• The Aboriginal population has a much younger average age than the rest of the Canadian population and are becoming increasingly urbanized

One Age when children in Sweden and Demark are entitled to

preschool 66% Mothers with preschool aged children who are employed 1 in 4 Children with vulnerabilities at school entry 1 in 2 Adults under 45 who don’t vote $2.62 billion Annual public costs for each cohort

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Chapter 2: Early Life and Learning, Behaviour and Health

• Experiments with fruit flies are among the research that has led us to believe that gene’s listen to the environment (Fruit flies regulate themselves to conserve energy when food is scarce)

• Changes that are altering our gene expression may be permanent or temporary- and some can be passed along from one generation to the next.

• Experiences carried to the brain influence how the neurons join up with each other to construct neural networks that make up the brain’s architecture.

• The brain is more receptive to stimuli during earlier stages of development – we can now can even treat/reverse dyslexia if found in early years.

• Sensory pathways (from seeing, hearing, tasting etc…) are set up during early development • Researchers now believe that a pregnant mother’s stress level and emotional well-being are potent

influences on how genes are expressed and on brain and biological development of the fetus. (Stressed mom= stressed baby)

• Studies have shown that compromised human development during the in utero period and infancy increases risks for adult diseases and behaviour problems (for i.e.; considerable evidence links maternal overeating during pregnancy to diabetes and other hormonal disorders in her offspring)

• At around 7 months gestation, the brain’s sensory pathways for hearing are activated & sensitive to sounds babies hear in womb- they even can distinguish between languages before being born!

• Joint reading activities from 18 months has been proven to contribute to child’s reading performance-regardless of socioeconomic background

• Learning, behaviour and health outcomes are all related to each other- Low literacy rates are associated with more health problems, as well as poorer academic performance.

• Early human development is an intricate dance between nature and nurture, genes and environment.

• Early brain and biological development set up life-long trajectories- later circumstances have an influence on how things turn out, but the trajectories carry forward from early childhood

• While Cubans may have low individual incomes, they have high levels of education and their governments allocate significant resources to their health and well-being. Therefore, they are outperforming all the South American countries with their low incidence of child mortality (lower than Canada & U.S.); they have a lower percentage of low birth weight babies and children have higher performance on academic outcomes.

• Children in Romanian orphanages for more than six months were likely to have abnormal brain development and poor cognitive development, as well as aggression and behaviour problems by age 11. Early adversity affected the children’s chromosomes -hastened the aging of cells and potentially increased child’s risk of cancer & heart disease as an adult.

• Understanding human society means joining up knowledge from biological and social sciences and from the humanities, not discounting one perspective in favor of the other.

• Post-secondary education ideally should ensure a core understanding of early human development is offered across all disciplines.

• In Canada, the University of Lethbridge has 2 new programs; a) a general experience-based brain development program and b) more detailed neurobiological development program, & The University of Toronto is creating an institute of Human Development that will bring together research scientists with clinicians, social workers and educators.

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30 million More words heard by a child in an affluent home,

compared to a disadvantaged home, by age 4 Early 20s Age when the prefrontal cortex neural circuits of the

human brain are fully formed One The age when babies stop producing sounds they are not

hearing 4.9 Infant mortality rate Cuba 4.92 Infant mortality rate Canada

Chapter 3: Creating Spaces and Places for Young Children and Families:

• Newborns know far more that scientists previously imagined! • Young children live in families that are more diverse than ever before, and under circumstances that are

significantly more complex, and for many, more stressful. Supporting families to cope with these transitions makes sense from a human capital argument.

• The 2003 UNICEF report, The State of the World’s Children, stresses that children need to be seen and heard in their communities around a wide range of issues of concern to them- children should be recognized as young citizens who are celebrated.

• Countries that support early human development recognize the unique contribution that families make. Consequently they support parents to balance work and child raising.

• Children who have intimate relationships at home, whose physical and emotional needs are met and who have friendships with other children are primed to learn from the world around them.

8 • Educators trained in early childhood development help parents stimulate their children’s

learning by responding to their cues and initiating interaction. • A recent study indicates a strong relationship between breastfeeding and cognitive outcomes.

Breastfeeding for as little as 4 weeks showed positive and significant effect on academic test scores. • Warm physical contact with adults helps build the neural pathways in children that manage emotional

response. • The feeling of being included is a prerequisite for early learning. Children’s sense of inclusion

increases in environments that allow their full participation and promotes attitudes, beliefs and values of equity and democracy.

• Children need opportunities to learn in the language they understand at the same time as they acquire a new language.

• Beyond the obvious health benefits that come with physical activity, preschool children experience other well-documented benefits, including improved sensory-motor coordination, social negotiation skills and vocabulary, and increased sentence complexity and sensory integration.

• Research shows that a planned curriculum, anchored by play, best capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and exuberance to learn.

• Good curriculum addresses the whole child and includes promoting an even level of quality across programs and facilitating communication between parents and staff.

• The quality of the curriculum is more important than the specifics. In practice, effective early childhood programs operate along a continuum that recognizes that some learning is best supported by explicit instruction, while other is best achieved by facilitation and modeling.

• Longer –term child outcomes, especially high school completion, are attributed to environments with child-initiated activity-ENGAGEMENT BASED ON SCOIAL LEARNING AND LEARNING HOW TO LEARN.

• EDUCATORS MATTER- they provide children with scaffolding, the kind of assistance that helps children to reach further that would be possible unassisted. (page 54)

9 • Community-level coordination can inform new policy frameworks, but successful transformation

requires high-level political will and direction that goes beyond single ministries to embrace the whole government.

• A number of barriers make system transformation difficult: 1. Structure- Regional infrastructure of education and social services often have different

geographical boundaries and organizational structures that are hard to line up. Furthermore, too many initiatives started and abandoned leaves bureaucrats feeling cynical.

2. Turf- ingrained professional and agency ideologies clash over who will lead and who will follow 3. Communication and resources- poor communication with parents, the public and

stakeholders leads to a lack of clarity about goals, timelines, roles and responsibilities. 4. Staffing- Insufficient supports frustrates educators and administrators who must meet new

demands. 5. Balancing the books- the recent global recession has pressured governments to protect its

own budget and employees. • Research has shown that children in neighbourhoods with integrated children’s services are more

socially competent. Also, as a result of integrated services, more families were informed about services, they found them more accessible, they attended programs more often and they participated in a broader range of activities.

• Early childhood program integration needs to move beyond pilot projects and be brought to center stage.

• Avenir d’enfants is an ambitious civic/government partnership that guides and supports Quebec communities to promote the development and well-being of children (prenatal to age 5). It is not a substitute for system infrastructure and public investment and it does not fund direct services. Rather, it wants providers to better know the families in their communities and how they are being served (and to find out how to serve them better). They act as a network weaver, connecting people who work with children.

• The first step was to develop action plans identifying service challenges in communities. EDI (Early Development Instrument) results were used to inform their plans.

• Avenir d’enfants also undertakes projects with a province-wide reach such as partnerships with post-secondary institutions to increase capacity in the sector. (I.e. curriculum for family homecare providers)

• One of the big questions Avenir d’enfants hopes to answer is how education, health, and community agencies can better intervene on behalf of children from disadvantaged homes.

• Often the people with the most insight are the families who use the services. Those least likely to be asked, but often with the most to offer, are those families who do not use them. Avenir d’enfants offers them all a voice.

• New Brunswick is another province that has consolidated all early childhood programming under a new Ministry of Education and Early Childhood Development.

• PEI and Nova Scotia have Early Years Centres as core to their new initiatives. The EY center’s follow a common curriculum, are aligned with schools, have mandated parent committees and employ a province-wide salary and fee scale.

• In Atlantic Canada the Margaret & Wallace McCain Family Foundation supports progress on early childhood policy by: Using joint protocols and agreements that clarify roles, responsibilities and expected

outcomes between levels of government, the foundation and community partners. Supporting joint professional development Maintaining regular contact with their government officials and praise and nudge them to

move the agenda forward.

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Chapter 4: Early childhood Education as Economic Development:

+ 10% The increased graduation rate for those who attended preschool

$717 million Ottawa’s annual tax benefit from Quebec’s low cost child care $101 million Gross annual revenue from Winnipeg’s child care sector 70,000 More Quebec mothers working because of low cost child care 50,000 The annual shortage of early childhood educators $5,000/child Saving in special education costs from after-school programs

• Early childhood education is economic development with a very high public return. • However, child care is historically at the bottom of economic development lists. • Researchers have followed three U.S. studies for longitudinal data on the effects of preschool on

disadvantaged kids: 1. Perry Preschool Project (1962), Return on each dollar spent= $17: $1 2. the Chicago Child-Parent Centers(1967) Return = $10: $1 3. the Abecedarian Study in North Carolina (1972) Return = $4: $1

• Preschool did help the children develop better cognitive habits and improved impulse control-

according to the above studies. • In Canada, the first landmark analysis of the economic pay-off of preschool came in 1998-two

University of Toronto professors determined the benefits to be $2 return to every $1 spent • Not until 2009 did studies focus on the state as a beneficiary of child care investment- Robert

Fairholme’s study showed how investing in educational child care was a hands down winner:

• Biggest job creator; Investing $1 million in child care would create at least 40 jobs, 43% more jobs than the next highest industry and 4 times the number of jobs generated by $1 million in construction spending.

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• Strong economic stimulus; Every $1 invested in child care increases the economy’s output (GDP) by $2.30 (see figure 4.4 below).

• Tax generator; Earnings from increased employment send back 90 cents for every dollar invested-virtually paying for itself!

• Fairholme also quantified that the poor employment environment in the EY sector results in an annual shortfall of 50,000 educators country-wide. This shortage holds parents back from entering the workforce and cost the economy $140 million between 2001 and 2007.

• Following the money confirms that effective early childhood programs are:

1. Universal (for i.e.; Québec’s universal program has a greater percentage of children from

low-income homes attending preschool than any other province, including provinces where funding is solely targeted to the poor).

2. Available and affordable 3. High Quality (educators well-trained in early childhood development and adequately

resourced to respond to individual needs are the prime determinants of quality) 4. Systems funding & management (Key here is Integrating early education and care as well

as stable funding). [These measures help remove work barriers for the most vulnerable families, and help ensure all children reach their full potential.]

• The Federal government currently makes a very modest contribution to early childhood

programming and needs to increase their investment ($1.1 billion federal dollars invested compared to $7.5 billion invested by the provinces and territories).

• Women’s tenacity in piecing together child care arrangements takes the pressure off the state to find formal solutions in affordable child care.

• Since 1996, Quebec women’s labour force participation has increased by 11% compared to Ontario’s 4%

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• Quebec also has a greater percentage of children from low-incomes attending preschool (figure 4.6) Due to their early years investments and 4&/day daycare

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Chapter 5: Public Policy Shapes Early Childhood Programs

6 Provinces offer full-day kindergarten 6 Jurisdictions have combined their education and child care

departments $1.1billion Amount Ottawa transfers to provinces and territories for early

childhood programming 24% First Nations children living off –reserve receiving child care

promoting traditional cultural values and customs 1:12 Ratio of early childhood educators to 3-year-olds in Quebec 1:32 Ratio of early childhood educators to 3-year-olds in Alberta 135% Increase in regulated child care spaces 1998-2010 in N. Brunswick 15% Increase in regulated child care spaces 1998-2010 in the Yukon

69% 2-4 year-olds who attend an ECE program in Quebec 38.6% 2-4 year-olds who attend an ECE program in the rest of Canada 66% Federally sentenced women with dependent children 28% Low-income children in Toronto attending licensed child care 66% Low-income children in Quebec attending licensed child care

In Canada, education and child care fall primarily within the jurisdiction of provinces and territories. Historical Federal Government’s child care policies: *Note; funding has since been rolled into the Canada Social Transfer, a block transfer to provinces/territories.

• Dominion Provincial Wartime Agreement during WWII • (CAP) Canada Assistance Plan established in 1966:

i. funded child care for low-income families ii. discouraged development of commercial child care by requiring not-for-profit administration iii. matched provincial spending with same by federal dollars iv. ended in 1996 [and federal government would not have a role in early childhood programming

for the mainstream population until 2000]. • (2000, ECDI), Early Childhood Development Initiative provided $500 million annually for programs

to promote infant and maternal health, improving parenting and community supports and strengthen early learning and child care- most provinces focused their efforts on information and parenting resources with scant amount to programs.

• (2003) Multilateral Framework Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care –focused on pre-school programs

• (2004) Foundations, a program to build a Canada-wide system of early learning and care.*Conservatives ended this funding in 2007

• (2007) Child Care Spaces Initiative- to provide incentives for workplace child care

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With little public support, child care services are unresponsive, fragmented, unaccountable and vulnerable.

Policy developments: • The Organization for Economic and Co-operative Development released Starting Strong, the most

comprehensive examination of early childhood education and care ever undertaken. It investigated services in over 15 countries over 8 years and concluded that there is a need for more public investment as well as coherent legislative and policy frameworks.

• The EY Study 2 built on the OECD’s observations and advocated integrating early childhood service silos into a single system.

• Jurisdictions are now adopting a more comprehensive view of the early years • More attention is being paid to curriculum and educators training • One trend is to appoint a lead department responsible for early childhood services (PEI, ON, NB,

SK, NWT & Nunavut). In B.C. education systems have augmented their investments in early childhood

• But moving child care under the wing of education departments is often as far as it goes- on the ground service delivery remains split between child care and education.

• Creating an early childhood education system out of a service patchwork is tough work. • Public funding for early childhood services still remains low. • How much governments allocate to child care makes a difference but how the funding is directed is

also a factor (Funding into operating grants appears to have a positive impact on wages and program stability, whereas funding through fee subsidies or tax transfers has little or no effect).

• International Research indicates that commercial child care chains drag down program

quality and undermine public accountability. • Foreign chains provide a new twist since they are entitled to equal treatment under WTO & NAFTA

regulations; therefore, our government policy will not be able to differentiate between them and domestic operators.

• Child care remains within the private sphere. Whether operated by a non-profit organization or private owner, it is a market service with decisions about location, cost, content and clientele in the operator’s domain.

Direct federal funding for ECE Programs: • On First Nations Reserves: Antiquated funding systems & retention of qualified

educators challenge FN communities to provide equitable programming. • Military personnel: Shortage of ECE’s & no strategy for training or recruitment • Federal prisoners: 2/3 of federally sentenced women have dependent children • Immigrants/Refugees

ECE budget for Québec as % of provincial budget = 4.67 [#1 in Canada] ECE budget for Ontario as % of provincial budget = 2.01 [#2 in Canada]

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• While education departments have increase their comfort level with young children, other than in Québec, they are adverse to operating programs after school hours.

• Ontario child care centres are losing qualified ECE’s who prefer to work in the school system and centre closures are up 5% over 2009 as they also are losing enrollment numbers.

• The You Bet I Care! Study of Canadian child care programs conclude that while they are safe, they are not as stimulating as they can be due to low staff compensation.

• ECE salaries in Ontario are 48% of a teacher’s salary. • Curriculum is not always a requirement in licensed child care (except in Ontario, B.C., Sask & NB) • Ontario’s Full-day Early Learning Kindergarten Program (FDELK) consolidates elements from ELECT

(Early Learning for Every Child Today) & the Kindergarten Program (2006). (We are the only province to align our pre-school with the primary school curriculum!)

• Outside of Québec, Canada does not score well on compliance with United Nations documents. According to UNICEF, Canada achieved only 1 out of 10 targets on the Convention of Rights of the Child.

Assessment tools: • A variety of social indicators, including child care data and EDI results are compiled in the annual

Toronto Report Card on Children. • EDI is now used in most regions across Canada. • Some EDI data is being linked to school data and in B.C. the grade 4 & grade 6 testing shows a strong

link between those scores and the children’s EDI scores. • National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth • Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development

Chapter 6: Where Are We? How Far Do We Have To Go?

• To help chart progress, Early Years Study 3 introduces the Early Childhood Index 2011 • The ECEI 2011 provides a snapshot of provincial early childhood services • 15 benchmarks reflect a common set of core standards • Organized into 5 categories- each rated out of 3 points • Designed to provide a common pan-Canadian indicators of progress and can be incorporated into

other monitoring efforts • In its first year only 3 provinces received a passing grade (see figure 6.1) • The index does not suggest that there is only one route to success.

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