Launch of Teach ECE: New Tool to Measure Quality of Teaching Practices for early childhood education

Despite the recent expansion of access to early childhood education (ECE) in every region of the world, quality of ECE remains extremely low, especially in LMICs. Thus, the continued scaling up of ECE globally presents both an opportunity and challenge in ensuring children are reaping the benefits and the promise of the early years.

The quality of teacher-child interactions in the classroom – otherwise known as process quality – is a critical aspect of ECE quality. The biggest bottleneck to improving process quality is the low capacity of the ECE workforce. Entry and training requirements for ECE teachers are often the lowest in education systems, opportunities for training are very limited, and ECE teachers receive little support to implement developmentally-appropriate pedagogical practices in the classroom. Measuring what currently occurs in the ECE classroom is an important first step towards better supporting ECE teachers.

The BBL will discuss the centrality of the ECE workforce in efforts to ensure access to ECE is scaled with an accompanying focus on quality. There will be an emphasis on the value of collecting data on teaching practices to drive policy dialogue in this area and inform interventions focused on improving professional development opportunities for ECE teachers. It will include a presentation on the World Bank’s new Teach ECE tool, a classroom observation tool aimed at measuring the quality of teacher-child interactions in ECE settings. The presentation will cover what the tool captures, available resources to support implementation, and initial data from pilot applications. The panel discussion will focus on best practices around measuring and supporting effective teaching in the ECE classroom, drawing on perspectives from the field, research, and policy.

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