Early childhood development as economic developmen by Kerry McCuaig
Early Childhood Education Report 2023, 2024
The Early Childhood Education Report captures changes to Canada's provincial and territorial ear... more The Early Childhood Education Report captures changes to Canada's provincial and territorial early years services from March 2020 to March 2023. As such, it is able to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service provision, as well as the new funding, and requirements of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreements (CWELCC).
Early Childhood Education Report 2020, 2021
This is the 4th edition of the Early Childhood Education Report (ECER). Established in 2011, the ... more This is the 4th edition of the Early Childhood Education Report (ECER). Established in 2011, the report is released every three years to evaluate provincial/territorial early years services against a 15-point scale. Results are populated from detailed profiles of each province and territory. The ECER is organized around 5 categories with 21 benchmarks forming a common set of minimum criteria contributing to the delivery of quality programming. This report captures changes to early years services from March 2017 to March 2020, as such it is able to assess the impact of the Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreements and serves as baselines for both the pre-pandemic status of ECEC in Canada and Federal Budget 2021.
Atkinson Centre, University of Toronto, 2018
Public education in Canada provides a natural platform to expand early education and care opport... more Public education in Canada provides a natural platform to expand early education and care opportunities for preschool aged children. Public education's has a well developed professional, curriculum and accountability infrastructure that can be easily expanded to meet the needs of young children and families.
The 3rd Nordic ECEC conference in Oslo. Approaches in Nordic ECEC research: Current research and new perspectives, 2013
Early childhood development is economic development with a very high return. A decade ago this st... more Early childhood development is economic development with a very high return. A decade ago this statement would have been dismissed. Spending on programs for young children was conceived as consumption, an immediate cost to the economy. An expanding research base refutes this claim and has swelled the audience for early childhood concerns engaging economists, scientists, health providers, and even financiers
Healthcare Quarterly , 2012
The needs of modern families have changed; the services designed to support them have not. Childr... more The needs of modern families have changed; the services designed to support them have not. Children's programming in Canada is divided into three distinct streams – education, child care, and family and intervention supports. All promote the healthy development of children as their primary goal, yet they have little, or no, interaction. There are pockets of innovation and increased levels of investment, but service overlap prevails alongside large gaps. Each stream has its own bureaucracy, culture and mandate. The result is service silos. Children and families don't experience their lives in silos; their needs can't be dissected and addressed in isolation.
Papers by Kerry McCuaig
Canadian Woman Studies, 1989
Economic Development Quarterly, 2014
Research from numerous disciplines provides support for the critical importance of early childhoo... more Research from numerous disciplines provides support for the critical importance of early childhood development in economic development. The long-term individual and societal benefits of investing resources during early childhood make it an unrivaled opportunity for policy. Over the past 30 years, states have gained increasing control over the major policies for families with young children through the devolution of federal programs to states. States have also expanded their innovation and adoption of early childhood education programs during this time, such as prekindergarten. Policy makers need to understand how the differences in these policies across states affect policy effectiveness and child well-being, yet there is limited research, especially during early childhood. This article outlines the federally-devolved and state-developed policies for families with young children and the dimensions and characteristics that vary between states, and concludes with implications for rese...
The Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development is a research centre at the Ontario Institu... more The Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development is a research centre at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. It is committed to using the best available evidence to inform public discourse, public policy and the professional learning of early childhood educators and elementary school teachers.
Early Childhood Education Report 2017, 2017
The Early Childhood Education Report 2017 is the third assessment of provincial and territorial f... more The Early Childhood Education Report 2017 is the third assessment of provincial and territorial frameworks for early childhood education in Canada. Nineteen benchmarks, organized into five equally weighted categories, evaluate governance structures, funding levels, access, quality in early learning environments and the rigour of accountability mechanisms.
Results are populated from detailed provincial and territorial profiles developed by the researchers and reviewed by provincial and territorial officials. Researchers and officials co-determine the benchmarks assigned. We are pleased to welcome Nunavut and Yukon as new participants in this edition. ECEReport.ca includes the profiles for each jurisdiction, including the federal government, plus the methodology that shapes the report, references, charts and figures and materials from past reports.
Review of TORONTO EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE SERVICES, 2021
The City of Toronto is the second largest manager of child care services in Canada. It directly ... more The City of Toronto is the second largest manager of child care services in Canada. It directly operates a network of centre and home child care providers delivering child care to some of the most vulnerable families in the city. This study examines the unique role of played by publicly operated child care compared to other operator types. It found that public child care operates with greater efficiency, devotes more of its budget to staff compensation and delivers higher quality care to a greater percentage of hard to serve families children in the City.
The unique role of City-operated was seen during the unprecedented circumstances presented
by the COVID-19 pandemic. The capacity of a
municipality to respond in an emergency context
is not paralleled by the community-based or nonprofit
sector. Toronto’s ability to leverage its highly
trained and experienced workforce, the ease of
collaboration between Children’s Services and
Toronto Public Health to implement new health
and safety protocols, and a direct government to
government relationship with the Province were
all vital to the speed of implementing emergency
child care. As recovery from the impact of the
pandemic evolves, the challenges faced by
community-based child care to operate in a postpandemic
reality are emerging with a potential
to create an even greater shortage of child
care spaces than had already existed. Actions
to stabilize the child care sector in Toronto,
including the importance of City-operated child
care centres may well require urgent review
and attention in a way that could not have been
foreseen at the beginning of the pandemic
Canada’s Children Need a Professional Early Childhood Education Workforce, 2022
In 2021, the Government of Canada committed to providing sustained funding to provinces and terri... more In 2021, the Government of Canada committed to providing sustained funding to provinces and territories to expand access to more affordable child care. The ultimate goal is to create a Canada-wide early learning and child care plan to drive economic growth, support women's workforce participation, and give every Canadian child a head start. Achieving these objectives requires a qualified early childhood education workforce. The early childhood education workforce is large, with 300,000 plus members representing more than1% of the working population. Workforce members can be found in many sectors, including licensed child care, health, education, family support, and settlement services. Every Canadian jurisdiction has legislation governing the provision of regulated, or licensed, 1 child care services. This report focuses on those working in child care centres or group care. It provides a status report on today's child care workforce and the challenges it faces, along with promising practices. It concludes with a series of recommendations. The intent is to draw attention to the centrality of educators in creating Canada's newest social program and the policies and resources they require to make it a success.
Fetal environment, the home environment, and the social setting more generally affect the long-te... more Fetal environment, the home environment, and the social setting more generally affect the long-term development of the child. Such analysis is known as prevention science because it seeks to identify ways to prevent negative impacts on the child from conception onward. The entry reviews the research on the positive impact of early education and concludes with a look at the relationship between public policy and early childhood education.
Exceptionality Education International, 2019
This article introduces the special issue: Linking Quality Early Child Education and Special Educ... more This article introduces the special issue: Linking Quality Early Child Education and Special Education Needs.
Healthcare Quarterly, 2012
As the early childhood education field extends into providing more integrated school-based servic... more As the early childhood education field extends into providing more integrated school-based services, the time is right to examine the interconnections and opportunities evident in the provision of quality early childhood education services. As researchers, we were interested in examining whether the provision of quality early childhood education services mediates the need for special education services for children with identified exceptionalities. This symposium will address 8 papers related to this purpose: 1) the role of research in informing public policy; 2) early childhood education and special education; 3) parents perspectives on co-constructed pedagogical documentation in early learning settings; 4) the impact of full-day kindergarten on learning outcomes and self-regulation among kindergarten children at risk for placement in special education; 5) the impact of quality learning programs on the demand for student support services; 6) the benefits of including children with ...
Exceptionality Education International, 2019
This article introduces the special issue: Linking Quality Early Child Education and Special Educ... more This article introduces the special issue: Linking Quality Early Child Education and Special Education Needs.
Canadian Review of Social Policy Revue Canadienne De Politique Sociale, Nov 1, 1999
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Early childhood development as economic developmen by Kerry McCuaig
Papers by Kerry McCuaig
Results are populated from detailed provincial and territorial profiles developed by the researchers and reviewed by provincial and territorial officials. Researchers and officials co-determine the benchmarks assigned. We are pleased to welcome Nunavut and Yukon as new participants in this edition. ECEReport.ca includes the profiles for each jurisdiction, including the federal government, plus the methodology that shapes the report, references, charts and figures and materials from past reports.
The unique role of City-operated was seen during the unprecedented circumstances presented
by the COVID-19 pandemic. The capacity of a
municipality to respond in an emergency context
is not paralleled by the community-based or nonprofit
sector. Toronto’s ability to leverage its highly
trained and experienced workforce, the ease of
collaboration between Children’s Services and
Toronto Public Health to implement new health
and safety protocols, and a direct government to
government relationship with the Province were
all vital to the speed of implementing emergency
child care. As recovery from the impact of the
pandemic evolves, the challenges faced by
community-based child care to operate in a postpandemic
reality are emerging with a potential
to create an even greater shortage of child
care spaces than had already existed. Actions
to stabilize the child care sector in Toronto,
including the importance of City-operated child
care centres may well require urgent review
and attention in a way that could not have been
foreseen at the beginning of the pandemic
Results are populated from detailed provincial and territorial profiles developed by the researchers and reviewed by provincial and territorial officials. Researchers and officials co-determine the benchmarks assigned. We are pleased to welcome Nunavut and Yukon as new participants in this edition. ECEReport.ca includes the profiles for each jurisdiction, including the federal government, plus the methodology that shapes the report, references, charts and figures and materials from past reports.
The unique role of City-operated was seen during the unprecedented circumstances presented
by the COVID-19 pandemic. The capacity of a
municipality to respond in an emergency context
is not paralleled by the community-based or nonprofit
sector. Toronto’s ability to leverage its highly
trained and experienced workforce, the ease of
collaboration between Children’s Services and
Toronto Public Health to implement new health
and safety protocols, and a direct government to
government relationship with the Province were
all vital to the speed of implementing emergency
child care. As recovery from the impact of the
pandemic evolves, the challenges faced by
community-based child care to operate in a postpandemic
reality are emerging with a potential
to create an even greater shortage of child
care spaces than had already existed. Actions
to stabilize the child care sector in Toronto,
including the importance of City-operated child
care centres may well require urgent review
and attention in a way that could not have been
foreseen at the beginning of the pandemic