Publications
A collection of publications written by Atkinson Centre team members, in addition to important articles, documents and reports related to early learning and child care.
Full-day Kindergarten is what Ontario needs for a stable future
Posted on The Conversation.
Excerpt: "Early childhood research anchored in brain development showed that up to a third of students started Grade 1 so far behind they never caught up. By the time they entered school it was both very difficult and very expensive to make up for the foundational skills they missed during their early years."
Excerpt: "Early childhood research anchored in brain development showed that up to a third of students started Grade 1 so far behind they never caught up. By the time they entered school it was both very difficult and very expensive to make up for the foundational skills they missed during their early years."
The Rationale for Expanding Public Education to Include Preschool-Aged Children
Excerpt: "Unlike schools, Canada’s current patchwork of child care and preschool programs is primarily delivered as a market service. Access varies, as does quality. Evidence in Canada and elsewhere indicates that mixed delivery of preschool creates access, quality and accountability challenges. Relying on a mix of delivery agents – public, private, non-profit – necessitates negotiating multiple relationships and systems. Public education offers a sturdy platform that avoids, or at least reduces, these challenges. Building public education down to provide universal preschool is an alternative to market delivery."
Canada needs a national strategy to address the shortage of early childhood educators
Excerpt: "Canada has about 2.4-million children age 5 and younger. If we were to exclude those under 1 year old, because their parents are potentially covered by federal parental leave, that leaves about 1.9- million preschoolers. For those 1.9 million preschoolers we have about 800,000 preschool child care spaces or enough capacity for about 40% of these children."
UNICEF Report Card 15: The Equalizer: How Education Creates Fairness for Children in Canada
Posted on UNICEF Canada.
Excerpt: "The report measures the rights and well-being of children in rich countries over the past 18 years. UNICEF compares countries so they can learn and do better. The 2018 UNICEF Report Card 15 is focused on equality in education."
Special thanks to from UNICEF Canada went to Kerry McCuaig and Dr. Emis Akbari, Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development, University of Toronto, for producing data and analysis for early child education in Canada.
Excerpt: "The report measures the rights and well-being of children in rich countries over the past 18 years. UNICEF compares countries so they can learn and do better. The 2018 UNICEF Report Card 15 is focused on equality in education."
Special thanks to from UNICEF Canada went to Kerry McCuaig and Dr. Emis Akbari, Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development, University of Toronto, for producing data and analysis for early child education in Canada.
Ontario’s early years revolution
Excerpt: "Ontario has become the first jurisdiction in North America to make early learning and child care an entitlement for all children, setting a new bar for child care policy."
Once ranked worst in the OECD for preschool, Canada has a radical plan
Posted on apolitical.
Excerpt: "“What really spurred the development of early childhood policy in Canada was the OECD country profile,” said Kerry McCuaig, a Fellow in Early Childhood Policy at the University of Toronto. “It had been entirely an afterthought in terms of public policy.” Along with her colleagues at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), McCuaig has recently released the Early Childhood Education Report 2017, providing an update on what's been achieved since. Encouragingly, the report finds that more than half of Canadian pre-schoolers now attend an early education program before starting school, up from around 20% in 2008. Meanwhile, provinces and territories have been increasing spending on early childhood since a national framework was introduced in 2006: from C$2.5b ($1.98b) in 2004 to C$10.9b ($8.6b) a decade later."
Excerpt: "“What really spurred the development of early childhood policy in Canada was the OECD country profile,” said Kerry McCuaig, a Fellow in Early Childhood Policy at the University of Toronto. “It had been entirely an afterthought in terms of public policy.” Along with her colleagues at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), McCuaig has recently released the Early Childhood Education Report 2017, providing an update on what's been achieved since. Encouragingly, the report finds that more than half of Canadian pre-schoolers now attend an early education program before starting school, up from around 20% in 2008. Meanwhile, provinces and territories have been increasing spending on early childhood since a national framework was introduced in 2006: from C$2.5b ($1.98b) in 2004 to C$10.9b ($8.6b) a decade later."
Canada must invest more in early childhood education, says new report
Posted on The Conversation.
Excerpt: "A trend is emerging in education in Canada: We are recognizing that early childhood education is beneficial for children, for families, for everyone.
Provinces and territories are focusing more attention on programs for preschoolers and the federal government is prepared to invest billions of dollars in child care in the coming decade."
Excerpt: "A trend is emerging in education in Canada: We are recognizing that early childhood education is beneficial for children, for families, for everyone.
Provinces and territories are focusing more attention on programs for preschoolers and the federal government is prepared to invest billions of dollars in child care in the coming decade."
A few dissenters should not prevent Ontario from modernizing child care
Excerpt: "Many children enter a child care setting around 12 months starting out in an infant room which takes children up to 18 months old. Within six months they will transition to a toddler room and then transition again a year later to a preschool room. Multiple transitions sever children’s relationships with their educators and peers creating unnecessary anxiety and insecurity for young children and their families. The proposed option reduces means children transition only once from infancy to entry to FDK."
Policy Briefing Note: The Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce
Excerpt: "More than 190,000 people are part of Canada’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. ECEC workers are employed in early childhood programs operated by non-profit agencies and for-profit companies. They work in the public sector in postsecondary institutions, for school boards, and for local and provincial governments. They also work in private homes as unregulated child care providers, as independent contractors for regulated child care agencies, and as live-in nannies."
StrongStart BC Early Learning Prorgrams: Evaluation 2017
Excerpt: "This external evaluation of StrongStart BC is intended to generate knowledge and understanding about the efficacy of the program in meeting its objectives to support children’s early development and transition to kindergarten. It presents findings relating to service delivery and the experiences of children and families, and highlights some of the strengths, challenges and future considerations for StrongStart BC. The evaluation was commissioned by the BC Ministry of Education and the Provincial Office for the Early Years and carried outby researchers from the University of Toronto."
Early childhood services that work for children, families and islanders
Excerpt: "The research is designed to evaluate: The effects of the continuous early years program participation on children’s readiness for school; The value of a focused professional development agenda on child outcomes; The impact of public investments in early years programming on child outcomes."
Fundamental flaws flash over Ontario’s child care plan
Excerpt: "There is much to commend in the ministry’s document, but the fundamental flaws are flashing. As long as child care remains a market-driven service, designed as a workforce support and co-existing alongside an unlicensed black market, quality, affordable, universal, transparent, and accountable will remain words, and not the drivers of system transformation."
