Assessing early child development within a community.
The Early Development Instrument (EDI) Project is a neighborhood-level population measure administered in kindergarten that gauges the development of young children within the context of their community.
Erikson has completed the pilot phase and this groundbreaking tool is now available for communities. This project, the first of its kind in Illinois, extends our commitment to improving the lives of young children by illuminating opportunities for community-driven policy recommendations.
UPDATE: The EDI Project will not implement data collection during the 2020-2021 school year but will continue providing virtual tailored coaching and training for community partners in preparation for data collection during the 2021-2022 school year. Learn More.
The Early Development Instrument is a validated and reliable research tool created in Canada that has been used internationally for more than two decades.
The survey, delivered by kindergarten teachers and typically administered every three years, measures ability of a child to meet age-appropriate developmental expectations.
Results for individual children are never reported; data is aggregated and reported at the neighborhood level, providing a precise and holistic snapshot of a child’s development in the context of their community.
A community-based data tool to measure child development
Our objective is to work with communities to secure data on how their young children are doing. We help build data literacy so that communities can contextualize the data, bringing it to life through community history and storytelling, and, ultimately, translating it into actionable strategies.
The EDI compels communities to look at the supports and resources currently available to young children prior to entering school and assess how to better support early child development in preparation for kindergarten and beyond.
Schools can use this data to identify and learn from strengths in the community. It can help initiate targeted conversations on how to set children up for success before they start kindergarten, and where there are opportunities to focus additional support. The EDI data can also inform planning for future kindergarten students and address the needs of the current cohort of kindergarten children as they progress through school.
Results help identify the strengths and challenges of the children in their schools, leading to targeted interventions for those children. EDI data are used to predict academic outcomes up to fourth grade.
The data instigates community conversations that inform advocacy action planning. EDI data also encourages equitable allocation of resources to address the needs of children and families.
EDI data helps government plan equitable investments, inform policy, and evaluate program success over time. Maps built from the data can help focus investments and identify specific community needs.
Once we partner with a community, coalition, or school district, we provide support in many ways.
Year I
Year 2
Year 3
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