The Measuring Early Learning Quality & Outcomes initiative: purpose, process and results

ABSTRACT

Measuring Early Learning Quality & Outcomes (MELQO) was initiated to address needs for child development and quality of early childhood education (ECE) data, specifically for low- and middle-income countries. Drawing from existing tools, MELQO convened a consortium to create open-source tools to be adapted to national contexts, simultaneously informing global and national population-level monitoring. Beginning with the rationale and context for creating MELQO, we outline the process of creating the tools; highlight results from psychometric evaluation; and describe how the data have been used to reveal patterns of inequity and levels of learning and classroom quality. While psychometric analyses of MELQO indicate that scores should not be used to compare quality of child development between countries, country experiences suggest that data from MELQO tools within countries identify priorities for improvement of preprimary classrooms. MELQO also highlights the importance of local leadership to generate high-leverage data on ECE.

KEYWORDS:

• International Early childhood development
• measurement and monitoring
• early childhood education

Acknowledgments

The MELQO Initiative has relied upon the efforts of several individuals. A special thanks to Drs. Frances Aboud, Magdalena Janus, Linda Platas, Nirmala Rao, and Hiro Yoshikawa (in alphabetical order) for their contributions as lead developers of the tools. Funding for this project was received from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Dubai Cares, Porticus Foundation, World Bank and UNICEF.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/target-4-2-what-is-at-stake-for-monitoring-progress-on-early-childhood-education/.

2. Full country reports, including descriptions of demographic information and policy context, are not available for all countries. Where available, the citations have been included.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation;Porticus Foundation;Dubai Cares;UNICEF;World Bank Group.