{"schema_version":"ICEQC_NEWS_ARTICLE_V1","id":"iceqc-news-f99252da25d8c917","slug":"2007-08-07-monitoring-exceptions-in-early-childhood-care-and-education","language":"en","publication_status":"PUBLISHED","publication_date":"2007-08-07","last_modified_date":"2007-08-07","title":"Monitoring exceptions in early childhood care and education","summary":"Provides an evidence-led method for improving early childhood care and education, from definition of the problem to review of effectiveness and residual risk.","category":{"code":"QUALITY_IMPROVEMENT_METHODS","label":"Quality Improvement Methods"},"article_type":"Quality improvement method","publisher":"International Council for Education Quality Certification (ICEQC)","jurisdictional_scope":"International","historical_reference_basis":"2007 Education for All monitoring focus on early childhood","reference_authority":"United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization","sections":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The 2007 Education for All monitoring focus on early childhood provides the immediate context for exceptions in early childhood care and education. For the improvement objective, the purpose of an improvement method is not to produce an action plan; it is to change a material condition and verify that the change is sustained. The effect on learner access and reliable decision-making should inform the scale of control applied.","This analysis is informed by 2007 Education for All monitoring focus on early childhood. Its relevance to the practice should be assessed against the affected jurisdiction, learner population and form of provision. For early childhood care and education, any consequential application should rest on evidence suited to the affected scope, not on the existence of an international development alone.","The 2007 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Strong Foundations, focuses on the practice. It treats early childhood provision as extending beyond access to pre-primary places and considers health, nutrition, care, protection and learning together. The report’s framing requires quality analysis to examine who participates, the suitability of provision for young children, workforce capacity and unequal access.","The quality significance of the practice follows from a basic distinction between availability and effective provision. Provision for young children should integrate learning, wellbeing, protection and development, with expectations appropriate to age and context."]},{"heading":"Scope of the improvement","paragraphs":["The technical issue within exceptions in early childhood care and education concerns the basis on which a conclusion is reached. For the improvement objective, the subject should be examined as a connected system of policy, people, resources, decisions and evidence. Review should test the transfer points at which authority, information or follow-through may be lost. In the context of early childhood care and education, any condition preventing complete assurance should appear with the evidence on which the judgement relies.","When examining early childhood care and education, the applicable expectation should be capable of consistent application. For the issue under review, follow-up should determine whether the change is embedded in ordinary operations and whether it has created new risks or unequal effects. For decisions concerning early childhood care and education, operational definitions should be precise enough to support consistent consequential decisions and explain justified variation."]},{"heading":"Implementation responsibilities","paragraphs":["Failure in relation to exceptions in early childhood care and education may arise even where the stated policy is reasonable. Material concerns include access expanding without adequate quality, unsafe ratios or environments, unequal access to trained staff, and weak transition between home and school. In work concerning early childhood care and education, an exception should be assessed by effect, duration, recurrence and reach, including possible exposure beyond the initial sample."],"bullets":["Engage families.","Coordinate transitions and referrals.","Assure safe staffing and environments.","Review quality as access expands before it informs a consequential decision.","Identify barriers to participation before using it to determine a learner or provider outcome."]},{"heading":"Testing effectiveness","paragraphs":["The evidential record for exceptions in early childhood care and education should permit a reviewer to trace the matter from decision to outcome. This may require safe environment and safeguarding records, family communication and participation, access and attendance by relevant group, and transition and referral arrangements, supported by observation-based learning records and programme aims appropriate to child development. As regards early childhood care and education, sampling remains insufficient where it excludes a material group or cannot resolve contradictory evidence or recurrence.","The review method for the improvement objective should be reproducible. For the improvement objective, the reviewer should map the complete process, identify the intended result and responsible authority at each stage, and test normal cases together with exceptions. Results should distinguish a single case from evidence of a wider control weakness. Where early childhood care and education is under review, documentation should be sufficient to reconstruct the judgement without relying on unrecorded explanation.","Improvement of early childhood care and education should proceed through controlled tests where risk permits."]},{"heading":"Maintaining the result","paragraphs":["The analysis of exceptions in early childhood care and education should remain within the limits of the evidence. For early childhood care and education, improvement data should not be selected only because it is readily available. Participation rates do not establish the quality of early learning, and narrow academic measures do not provide a complete account of development or wellbeing. In the context of early childhood care and education, if uncertainty could change a consequential decision, additional evidence or a narrower conclusion is required.","Records relating to the improvement objective should preserve both the conclusion and its limits. When examining early childhood care and education, if further evidence changes the position, the correction should identify its scope and any earlier decision requiring reconsideration. For decisions concerning early childhood care and education, where reliance has occurred, correction may require review of affected decisions as well as amendment of published information.","Accountability for early childhood care and education should follow decision-making authority. As regards early childhood care and education, where work is delegated, the record should continue to identify who is accountable for material consequences to learners.","Where early childhood care and education is under review, progress should not be assessed by the amount of policy or documentation produced. Performance in relation to early childhood care and education should be judged by outcomes and timely response to shortfalls, not by the volume of administrative activity."]}],"word_count":870,"content_hash":"sha256-ee14eb93511a4ffb64c07073d8cbc0e6fa7b3b15624edfd4b6829401f9e0e0fc","seo_keywords":["monitoring exceptions in early childhood care and education","education quality improvement","education quality","ICEQC"],"schema_type":"TechArticle"}