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.
Ontario鈥檚 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."
Posted on apolitical.
Excerpt: "鈥淲hat really spurred the development of early childhood policy in Canada was the OECD country profile,鈥 said Kerry McCuaig, a Fellow in Early Childhood Policy at the University of Toronto. 鈥淚t had been entirely an afterthought in terms of public policy.鈥 Along with her colleagues at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (萌妹社区), 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: "鈥淲hat really spurred the development of early childhood policy in Canada was the OECD country profile,鈥 said Kerry McCuaig, a Fellow in Early Childhood Policy at the University of Toronto. 鈥淚t had been entirely an afterthought in terms of public policy.鈥 Along with her colleagues at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (萌妹社区), 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."
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鈥檚 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."
Excerpt: "More than 190,000 people are part of Canada鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 child care plan
Excerpt: "There is much to commend in the ministry鈥檚 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."
Declaration: For Recognition of All Children鈥檚 Right to Quality Educational Services, from Birth Onward
Excerpt: "Here is the Declaration of the Summit on Early Childhood Education for recognition of the right of every child to quality education services from birth. If you wish, you can make a citizen gesture by signing this Declaration electronically. In doing so, you will affirm your adherence to the principles set out therein and which promote equal opportunities for every citizen."
Twelve Flawed Statements of the Fraser Institute on Quebec鈥檚 Childcare Program
Excerpt: "This Research Bulletin is an affront to the standards promised by the Fraser Institute鈥檚 website, according to which 鈥渃areful, accurate and rigorous measurement鈥 is the foundation for its work, and the source of its data is 鈥渁lways provided.鈥 The twelve arguments made in support of its view that Quebec鈥檚 childcare program is 鈥渇lawed鈥 do not hold water. Measurement is often careless, inaccurate, negligent, absent or mathematically absurd. Many sources are anachronistic, contrarian or unrelated to the argument, irrelevant, misinterpreted or missing. Simple correlations are fallaciously taken as identifiers of cause and effect.
All in all, an intellectual disaster."
All in all, an intellectual disaster."
Budget 2017 says all the right things but women still pick up the tab
Excerpt: "The headlines scream $7-billion for child care but dial back the enthusiasm. New funding creeps up from $500-million this year to $550-million a year over the next five years. It is not until post-election and another five years before annual funding tops out in 2028 at $870-million. Over a decade ago Paul Martin Liberals came out of the gate with $1-billion a year over 5 years and a plan that continued to shape provincial child care services long after the Harper government extinguished the money."
Response to the 鈥淏uilding A Better Future鈥 discussion paper from Petr Varmuza and Laura Coulman, PhD Candidates at 萌妹社区, University of Toronto, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, Early Learning Cohort
Excerpt: "What is needed now, for the early years and child care system, can be achieved in a gradual, orderly transition following from the innovative work that was set underway when your government created the public alternative to private delivery of early childhood education and care in Ontario for children ages four and five years. The reality is that more than one quarter of families in which parents are working or in school for 30 or more hours per week, have no regular child care arrangements. They resort to split shifts and weekend work which results in poorer work-life balance, reduced family time, and increased stress. And, of the children who are in a care arrangement full-time, more than one third are in informal care arrangements."
