THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT

INSTRUMENT (EDI)

Teacher Information & Training

Session
 EARLY YEARS MATTER:

• Child’s experiences in the early

years of life are pivotal for how
the genes that govern many
aspects of neurobiological
development are expressed

• Child’s capacity to learn when

they enter school is strongly
influenced by the neural wiring
that takes place in the early years
 Readiness to learn concept
Children are born ready to learn:
the
neurosystem is
pre-programmed
to develop
various skills
and
neuropathways,
depending on
the experience
 School Readiness
Refers to the child’s ability to meet the task demands
of school, such as:
• being comfortable exploring and asking questions,
• listening to the teacher,
• playing and working with other children,
• remembering and following rules.
In short, it is the ability to benefit from the
educational activities that are provided by
the school.
WHY THE EDI?
 Benefits
Results from the Early Development Instrument
(or EDI) will enable us to:
• Look forward – adjust school programs to meet
the current needs of incoming students (schools).
• Look backward – adjust early childhood
programs to help ensure children are ready to learn
and make it easier for them to make the transition
to school (community).
Benefits cont’d

• Schools use EDI data by itself for program

planning.
• Community uses EDI data in conjunction
with other information (e.g., EQAO results,
population statistics, other community
information) to identify neighbourhoods
where additional early years supports may
be required.
 Canadian Association of Principals
“EDI data in conjunction with other data
can be used to create, maintain, and
monitor community support for programs
and policies affecting young children….
Analysis can increase public understanding
of the factors which contribute to early
child development, inspiring a commitment
to fundraising, policy development and
other initiatives.”
Source: Canadian Association of Principals – Student Readiness to Learn and
the School Ready to Teach: an Internet Essay and Collection of Selected
Documents: www.schoolfile.com/cap_start/schoolready.html (2003)
BACKGROUND OF
THE EDI
What is the EDI
• The EDI is teacher-completed checklist that
assesses children’s readiness to learn before
they enter formal schooling (Grade 1).
• In other words, it measures the outcomes of
children’s pre-school experiences as they
influence their readiness to learn at school.
• As a result, the EDI is able to predict how
children will do in elementary school.
How the EDI works

The EDI assesses children’s readiness to

learn when they enter school by looking at
five key areas of child development:
1) Physical
health and
well-being
2) Emotional
health and 2-3) Maturity
maturity

3) Social
knowledge
and
competence
 4) Language
development and
thinking skills
5) Communication
skills and general
knowledge
•The EDI is… •The EDI is
….. not……..
–A population (or –An individual
large group) child or
measure diagnostic
–A way to measure
understand –A way to
trends in the evaluate
development of teachers or
kindergarten individual
children programs
Who Developed It?

• The EDI was developed at McMaster

University’s Offord Centre for Child
Studies in 1997.

• The instrument was designed and tested

in collaboration with teachers and
educators.
Teachers’ Input

• In the process of development, the EDI was

streamlined using further input from
teachers.
• Questions that did not seem clear enough,
or did not bring any new information, have
been removed.
Validity Testing

• The EDI has undergone extensive pilot

testing, and has been compared with direct
assessment results and parent reports.
• It has also been repeated on the same group
of children within a short space of time.
• The EDI demonstrated reliability in all
these tests.
WHO IS USING IT?
Across Canada: Internationally:
Australia (full coverage)
1999-2007 over 520 000 children USA - a few isolated sites
• Full provincial coverage in Ontario, Chile
Manitoba and BC New Zealand
Jamaica
• Implementations in Quebec, Kosovo
Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Mexico
Newfoundland, PEI, New Brunswick, Interest: UK, Israel, Cuba
Nunavut
• Only region not covered is Yukon
 Ottawa Implementation
• In the 1999-2000 school year, the Ottawa-
Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) was
the first board in Ottawa to implement the EDI
across all of its schools.
• The OCDSB continued to implement the EDI
every school year until 2002-2003 at which
time the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School
Board (OCCSB) also joined in
• In the 2005-2006 all four school boards in
Ottawa implemented the EDI.
• In 2008-2009, all four school boards will
participate in the EDI. For the first time, we
will be able to compare with previous years at
a citywide and neighbourhood level.
 COMPLETING THE
QUESTIONNAIRES
 Implementation Timelines

• Teachers must complete EDI questionnaires

in the 2 weeks following the training.
• Teachers must put completed questionnaires
into internal courier system.
 Time required to complete
questionnaires
• Each questionnaire takes approximately 20
minutes to complete.
• The first questionnaires may take more time
than the average 20 minutes.
 Tip # 1
• Due to the “learning curve” involved, it
is considerably more efficient to
complete all the questionnaires in one
sitting.
Getting Started: Your EDI Package
Your EDI package contains the following items:

1) Additional Explanatory Notes for Teachers

2) Teacher Participation Form
3) EDI Guide
4) Class List from McMaster
5) Local Class List
6) EDI questionnaires, individually labeled
7) A blank EDI questionnaire
8) School Board contact information
9) Coordinator’s contact information
Teacher Participation Form
• Please complete one per class after the
completion of your class EDIs.
• Helps us keep everything organized when you
return the questionnaires to us.
• It also provides information on the general
characteristics of the population of teachers
and their experience with the EDI.
• It is not intended for evaluation of any sort.
The information will be examined as a whole,
not on an individual basis.
 EDI Guide
• Intended to facilitate completion of the EDI;
based on comments from teachers.
• Please read the whole Guide once before
starting to complete the questionnaires.
• Open to further comments: If you have
comments pertaining to the guide, please
write them on a separate sheet of paper and
enclose with your completed
questionnaires.
 Tip # 2

• Read the entire EDI GUIDE once before

starting on the questionnaires.

• After you have read the EDI Guide, consult it

only if in doubt.
YOU ARE NOW READY TO
TACKLE THE
QUESTIONNAIRES!
 General Instructions
• Please use a blue or black ball-point pen.

• If you make a mistake, do not use white-out.

Put a large X over the wrong answer and put a
clean mark in the correct circle.
• The child does not need to be there when you
complete the questionnaire. Base your answers
on your observations and overall impressions
of the child.
• Responses to the questions should be based on your
observations of the students reflecting his/her
CURRENT developmental status

• Use ‘I don’t know’ as a last resort only, especially in

the student demographic page (page 1).
Questionnaires received with too many ‘I don’t knows’
cannot be used in the final analysis.

• You must complete one questionnaire per child in your

classroom. If you have known the child for less than
a month, please complete the first page only.
EDI Questionnaire: Overview

• 4 double-sided pages
• First page – identifying information.

• Remainder – 5 sections (labeled A-E),

based on the 5 key areas of child
development
Step 1: Verify school and teacher
information
• Look at the label in the top right corner of
the questionnaire.
• Confirm that the School and Teacher
information is correct.
• If School and Teacher information does not
appear on the label, please print it clearly in
the spaces provided.
 Step 2: Identify the child
• In the top right corner of the form is an 11-
digit child identification number (generated
by McMaster University) called the EDI
ID#.

• To find the child’s name, you will need to

cross-reference the child’s EDI ID# with
both the ClassList (generated by McMaster
University) and the Local Class List
(generated by school boards).
ClassList from McMaster
• Find the EDI ID# from the questionnaire on this ClassList.
• Cross-reference the corresponding Local ID# with the
Local Class List (see next slide).

CLASSLIST

School Name Teacher Name EDI ID# Local ID# DOB Gender
Valley School Mrs. X 02900101102 75-02 14/09/99 f
Valley School Mrs. X 02900101103 75-09 07/04/99 m
Valley School Mrs. X 02900101104 75-03 15/02/99 f
Valley School Mrs. X 02900101105 75-15 21/06/99 m
 Local Class List

• Use the Local ID # from the previous step to find the

name of the child.

School Teacher Local Last First Postal

Name Name ID Name Name BOB Gender Code

Valley
School Mrs. X 75-02 Bouchal Claire 14 9 1999 M N7V1B3

Valley
School Mrs. X 75-09 Smith John 7 4 1999 F N7V1N4

Valley
School Mrs. X 75-03 Jones Brigette 15 2 1999 F N7V1H7

Valley
School Mrs. X 75-15 Reagan Mikey 21 6 1999 F N7H1S1
Step 3: Confirm the child’s identity

• Quickly double-check that the DOB,

Gender and Postal Code on the bottom
half of the label on the questionnaire is the
same as the information on the Local Class
List.
• This will confirm that the questionnaire is
indeed for that child.
Missing or incorrect label information

If any of the information on the label (top right

corner of the EDI questionnaire) is incorrect or
missing, enter the correct information in:
• the label
and
• the Scantron section on page 1 by filling in the
appropriate circles
What if I can’t find a pre-labeled
questionnaire for a child in my
class?

If there are not enough forms for

everyone (e.g., new child in your class):
• Take the blank EDI questionnaire and make
as many photocopies as you need.
How to complete a blank questionnaire

• Take the 9-digit Teacher ID # from the

Teacher Demographic Form and write it in
the label at the top of the EDI questionnaire.
• Next, enter the child’s date of birth, gender,
and postal code both in the label and by
filling out the Scantron section on page 1.
• Proceed with the rest of the EDI
questionnaire as usual.
What if a child has moved to
another school?
• The teacher who has had the student for the
longer duration should complete a blank
EDI for that child.
• The teacher who has had the student for the
shorter period and was sent a questionnaire
on that child should mark “moved” on the
form and include it with the other
questionnaires to be returned.
What if 2 teachers teach the
same class (job sharing)?

• Only one questionnaire per student should

be filled out.
 IMPORTANT!!
Q 7 Special Needs – Cannot be left blank!!
A professional must identify the child as special
needs, this is not meant to be an assessment by the
teacher. For example a child identified already as
needing special assistance due to chronic medical,
physical, or mental disabling conditions (e.g.,
autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, Down syndrome)
and/or a child requires special assistance in the
classroom. Please see Guide for provincially
specific SN definition.
 IMPORTANT!!
Q 8 ESL
Refers to a child for whom English is NOT their
first language AND who needs additional
instruction in English. A child is NOT
considered ESL if his/her first language is
English, or the child is able to speak another
language apart from English, but whose English
is fluent, or a child whose first language
(developmentally) is not English but whose
English is fluent.
 REMAINDER OF THE
EDI QUESTIONNAIRE

...
EDI – Section E
• Asks questions about pre-school experiences (e.g.,
child care).
• This section must be sent to all parents and brought
back as soon as possible in order for you to complete
the questionnaire. If this section is not sent back,
you must fill out the section to the best of your
knowledge.
• This section also contains a space for additional
comments.
 Privacy and Confidentiality

•All information collected is kept completely

confidential and used for statistical purposes
only
•Parents are informed about the research by
letter; participation is voluntary; consent is
passive
•NO CHILD OR TEACHER IS EVER
IDENTIFIED IN OUR REPORTING
Ressource at McMaster University

Ashley Gaskin
agaskin@mcmaster.ca
(905) 521-2100 x74352
QUESTIONS?