ECE (Early Childhood Education) Publications

The Early Childhood Education Information and Communication Technology Professional Learning Programme (ECE ICT PLP) is a three year pilot professional development programme established in 2006. The overarching goal of the ECE ICT PL Programme is increased teacher capability (with particular emphasis on ICT capability) that leads to transformation and the development of a community of practice; which, in turn, contributes to enhanced learning outcomes for children.

This is the home page for the Competent Children, Competent Learners publication series.

The Competent Children, Competent Learners project is a longitudinal study undertaken by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) which focuses on a group of about 500 young people from the greater Wellington region. When the project began in 1993 its aim was to provide New Zealand policy makers and the early childhood education sector with a study which could show the concurrent, short-term, and long-term impact of early childhood education experience. As the project continued, the development of students' competence in mathematics, literacy and logical problem solving, and their competence in social and communication skills, has assumed more prominence, particularly in the project's ability to relate these to the home resources and experiences that students have, to trace the impact of different factors over time, and to compare the cumulative impact of differences in home and schools resources and experiences.

Seven phases of the project have now been completed - the first when the students were near age 5, the next when they were at age 6 and then at ages 8, 10, 12,14 and 16. A further phase is currently underway collecting data from the sample of young people at age 20.

This is the second and final report from the stage 1 evaluation of the ECE Strategic Plan. It reports on progress towards the three goals of the Plan and identifies changes that have occurred since baseline data were collected in 2004.

This report presents findings from the first phase of data collection for the stage 1 evaluation of the ECE Strategic Plan. It describes the localities and services participating in the evaluation and provides a baseline picture of how things were in mid-2004 in relation to the participation, quality and collaborative relationships goals of the Plan.

This report assesses the sustainability of ECE services during the early implementation of the ECE Strategic Plan. It complements the stage 1 evaluation undertaken by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) and Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust (TKRNT).

This study was undertaken soon after services began to offer 20 Hours ECE. The report focuses on the early effects of 20 Hours ECE on participating services’ practices, policies, costs and revenues. Sixty services participated in the study.

This report assesses the extent to which Free ECE may have impacted on Playcentres. Playcentres are not eligible for Free ECE funding, as they are parent-led services. It presents data from a questionnaire sent to a survey of Playcentres, as well as data collected through the annual RS61 census and other Ministry data to see how recent changes differ from long-term trends.

The Perceptions of Teachers and Teaching study completed by Massey University professors Ruth Kane and Mary Mallon in 2006 serves as the “original study” of this report. The Perceptions of Teachers and Teaching research project (originally named Teacher Status Stage Two) was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Teachers Council to examine the relationships between key groups’ perceptions of teachers and teachers’ work in early childhood and school sectors, and the recruitment, retention, performance and capability, and professional status of teachers.

This report presents findings from an impact evaluation of the 2006 Ministry of Education funded Kei Tua o te Pae professional development programme. In 2006, this programme provided assessment professional development to licensed and chartered early childhood education (ECE) services and ECE sector organisations (tertiary level organisations).

This literature review was commissioned by the Ministry of Education to provide policy makers with a synthesis of research that analyses the impact of early childhood education (ECE) for children and families.

The Centre of Innovation (COI) Programme is a strategy aimed at improving the quality of early childhood education. This publication home page provides access to the final research reports prepared by teacher researchers and research associates at the completion of each COI project.

This is the home page for the annual State of Education in New Zealand publication series. This report presents a picture of New Zealand’s education system with indicators on participation, achievement, effective teaching, labour market outcomes and resourcing across the early childhood, schooling and tertiary sectors.

The purpose of the evaluation was to evaluate the effectiveness of government funded early childhood education (ECE) professional development in meeting the agreed programme outcome of strengthening teacher, educator, kaiako, faiaoga, faiako and puapi’i capability and quality in practice, in order to extend positive learning outcomes for children, based on the principles of Te Whāriki.

This report contains the findings from an evaluation of the processes and outcomes of the Promoting Early Childhood Education (ECE) Participation Project. It is abbreviated throughout this report to PPP. The primary goal being to ensure that, “every child has the opportunity to participate in quality ECE, by assisting communities to address barriers resulting in non-participation in ECE, by children who might otherwise participate”.

This report presents the results of a research study that examined parental decision making in relation to the use of Early Childhood Education services.

20 Hours ECE funding rates need to fund the full average cost of providing early childhood education in each type of service. This requires information on the cost of provision, and on how that cost varies between types of early childhood education service.

This report provides the summary results of the 2006 Survey of Operating Costs for early childhood education (ECE) services.

This is the home page for the Education Statistics of New Zealand publication series. These publications provide basic information on the education sector.

The main purpose of this research was to find out more about the contributions parent and whānau-led early childhood education (ECE) services are making to children’s learning, parent knowledge/skills and social support, and community, in order to provide the Ministry of Education and parent/whānau-led services with information that could be used to support quality in these services.

Equity Funding is a small amount of additional funding for early childhood education (ECE) services intended to reduce educational disparities between different groups, reduce barriers to participation for groups underrepresented in ECE, and support ECE services to raise their level of educational achievement. This evaluation of the initial uses and impact of Equity Funding, funded by the Ministry of Education, is intended to contribute to the development of policy within the early childhood education sector.

This analysis of trends in Māori in early childhood education and schools was commissioned for Hui Taumata 2005.

A survey of employees in early childhood education (ECE) teacher-led services.

A review which synthesises recent literature about ICT use in early childhood education, prepared for the Ministry of Education by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

This scoping report was commissioned with the inter-relationship between children’s language acquisition, their cognitive development, and quality teaching in immersion and bilingual settings as the broad topic area for investigation. The report is comprised of three components: the first compiles of a profile of immersion and bilingual Pasifika early childhood education in 2001; the second reports on a consultation exercise with key stakeholders; and lastly an essay on bilingualism and second language acquisition in early childhood.

The Ministry of Education commissioned this evaluation to examine three aspects of professional development (PD) in the early childhood education (ECE) sector: describing the current delivery of PD; identifying barriers and success factors for delivery of the PD programmes; and identifying their impact. The evaluation covered the provision of whole centre PD in the calendar year 2000.

Evaluation of Pathways to the Future will take place over the next 10 years. The Ministry of Education has commissioned a logic model to use in this evaluation. The logic model shows the intended outcomes of the strategic plan and the pathways towards these outcomes.

Two outcomes of research and development are described in this report. One is the development of a set of resources suitable for family literacy education. The second is a set of research goals involving Māori and Pasifika families.

The Māori Women's Welfare League undertakes a parent support & development programme: Whanau Toko i te Ora. This is an evaluation of the progress of whanau moving though the programme. It involves an overall account, based on the database held at the Māori Women's Welfare League; and includes the write up of 16 case study interviews.

This research project delivered concentrated professional development in literacy instruction to groups of early childhood and new entrant teachers in decile one schools in Mangere and Otara. The outcome was a substantial lift in the reading and writing achievement of new entrants. Picking up the Pace was a component of the Early Childhood Primary Links via Literacy (ECPL) Project which was part of a much broader project, Strengthening Education in Mangere and Otara (SEMO), which aimed to raise achievement significantly among students in these two communities. The summary report is available as downloads above right and the full report as downloads at the bottom of this page.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the quality and outcomes of the work that Early Childhood Development (ECD) services does in these two areas. Specifically the evaluation seeks to describe the services provided, identify the outcomes, identify how well advice and support are provided and identify barriers that impact on achieving outcomes. Interviews with Ministry of Education and ECD staff and participants in programmes form part of the evaluation.

Over the last four years, the Ministry of Education has been directing significant efforts into refocusing its work and effectiveness. This has involved working towards a more strategic approach to policy planning and development, including aligning policy development and research more closely. One aspect of this work has been developing a set of strategic research priorities. The Ministry recognised that it needed a stronger information base and initiated the Strategic Research Initiative project. This literature review is one of suite of “state-of-the-art” literature reviews that the Ministry commissioned in 1999 as a first step in this project.