This month kicks off a busy time at HELP as thirty-seven school districts and 19 independent schools are participating in the final year of data collection for this EDI wave.
What is a wave? How can the end of a wave kick off something new?
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a population-level research tool. As such, it measures developmental change or trends in populations of children at varied geographies: provincial, regional and neighbourhood. This allows us to see variations in children's vulnerability across time and location. All school districts and independent schools across the province are invited to participate at least once every three years. A period of 2-3 years of data collection is called a 'wave'. Kindergarten teachers from across the province will complete close to 20,000 EDIs this month. This data will be added to the first two years of data collection from this wave, providing us with a complete wave of data – over 42,000 EDIs collected from 2013-2016!
What's next? When will new EDI data be available?
Over the next few months HELP faculty and staff will be preparing and analyzing Wave 6 data. Our teams will explore trends and patterns in children's vulnerability and developmental health outcomes: From the overall provincial picture to the stories emerging from the data in communities, school districts and each of the 297 neighborhoods across BC. By the fall of 2016 HELP will be releasing a series of reports, maps and resources as well as hosting public events to support the use of this new data. Stay tuned for details!
EDI results are used by early childhood coalitions, schools, government ministries, and researchers. Understanding how populations of children are doing allows program delivery organizations and policy makers to make informed decisions about investments in new or adapted programs and in broad policies that support children and families. We are always interested in learning more about how EDI is being used in planning and programming in your local community or region. HELP would love to hear from you.
A big thank you to all of the teachers, parents, school administrators, school district staff, and community early years representatives for your time and dedication to the EDI. Together, we have collected EDI results for over 230,000 children in BC since 2001. With your contribution we are learning more about how our children are doing so we can support efforts to improve the health and well-being of ALL children in BC.