Description
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.
Key findings:
- Children in services rated Exceeding NQS or Excellent had lower rates of developmental vulnerability compared to children in services rated Meeting NQS, Working Towards NQS or Significant Improvement Required.
- Ratings of Exceeding NQS were consistently associated with lower rates of children assessed as developmentally vulnerable and developmentally at risk across the stratifications of remoteness, income and income support of the child’s caregivers, and language background and ability of children.