A consortium of Utrecht University and Sardes Ltd has been commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment to conduct research to monitor the pedagogical quality of different types of child care provision and developments therein. The new study continues the study by the Dutch Consortium for Child Care Quality Research (NCKO) of the past years and uses partly the same measurement instruments. New instruments are added to address recent developments in the child care sector. New is also the inclusion of non-familial home based care by 'host parents' in the quality monitor. Each year, a nationally representative sample of child groups and caregivers in center-based child daycare, playgroup centers, preschools, and after school care centers will be studied through standard observations and interviews. In addition, families providing non-familial home based care will be sampled each year and similar observation and interview procedures will be applied. Over the years, an increasingly reliable and representative picture will emerge of child care quality in the Netherlands. Moreover, the annual measurements allow for the early detection of trends in child care quality. The study runs until April 2026.

• prof. dr. Paul Leseman
• dr. Bodine Romijn

• IJsbrand Jepma
• Paulien Muller

ISOTIS addresses the nature, causes and impact of early emerging social and educational inequalities in the context of socioeconomic, cultural and institutional processes. Quasi-panels and pooled longitudinal datasets will be used to examine the variation in early educational gaps and developmental trajectories across countries, education systems and time. To disentangle the complex interactions between characteristics of systems and target groups, ISOTIS will study significant immigrant, indigenous ethnic-cultural and low-income native groups, associated with persistent educational disadvantages. ISOTIS will examine current resources, experiences, aspirations, needs and well-being of children and parents in these groups in the context of acculturation and integration, and in relation to local and national policies. ISOTIS aims to contribute to effective policy and practice development by generating recommendations and concrete tools for: (1) supporting disadvantaged families and communities in using their own cultural and linguistic resources to create safe and stimulating home environments for their children; (2) creating effective and inclusive pedagogies in early childhood education and care centres and primary schools, including multilingual support; (3) professionalization of staff, centres and schools to improve quality and inclusiveness; and (4) establishing inter-agency coordination of support services to children and families.

• prof. dr. Paul Leseman
• dr. Martine Broekhuizen
• dr. Thomas van Huizen
• prof. dr. Janneke Plantenga
• dr. Bodine Romijn
• dr. Ryanne Francot

In line with the EU strategies for 2020 and the need for a systemic and integrated approach to Early Childhood education and Care (ECEC), the project identifies eight key issues and questions for which effective policy measures and instruments should be developed. They concern assessing the impact of ECEC, optimizing quality and curricula for ECEC to increase effectiveness, raising the professional competencies of staff, monitoring and assuring quality of ECEC, increasing the inclusiveness of ECEC, in particular for socioeconomically disadvantaged children, funding of ECEC, and the need for innovative European indicators of children’s wellbeing. The project addresses these issues in an integrative way by combining state-of-the-art knowledge of factors determining personal, social and economic benefits of ECEC with knowledge of the mechanisms determining access to and use of ECEC. In developing a European knowledge base for ECEC, the project adds to the existing knowledge in three ways. First, it includes secondary analyses of recent and ongoing large-scale longitudinal ECEC research from several European countries. Second, it includes the perspectives of important stakeholders and integrate cultural beliefs and values through a large scale survey across Europe. Third, it includes an observational in-depth study in ECEC centers in eight countries, along with a cross-cultural evaluation of observed practices. The central aim is to develop an evidence-based and culture-sensitive framework of (a) Developmental goals, quality assessment, curriculum approaches and policy measures for improving the quality and effectiveness of ECEC; and (b) Effective strategies of organizing, funding and governing ECEC that increase the impact of ECEC. The interdisciplinary research team constructs this framework, based on the competencies and skills that young children need to develop in current societies, identifies the conditions that have to be fulfilled to promote child development and wellbeing, and identifies strategies and policy measures that support access to high quality provisions, and that are likely to receive broad support of stakeholders, thereby enhancing the impact of ECEC. Website: http://ecec-care.org. 

• prof. dr. Paul Leseman
• dr. Martine Broekhuizen
• dr. Thomas van Huizen
• prof. dr. Janneke Plantenga

Deelname aan voorschoolse voorzieningen voor opvang en educatie toonde de afgelopen decennia een sterke sociaal-selectieve tendens. Kinderen van hoog opgeleide tweeverdieners maakten vaker gebruik van kinderopvang, kinderen van laag opgeleiden namen vooral deel aan peuterspeelzalen en voorscholen, allochtone kinderen voornamelijk aan voorscholen. Met de Wet Kinderopvang uit 2005 zijn financiële obstakels om van kinderopvang gebruik te maken grotendeels verdwenen. De vraag is hoe het deelnamepatroon van de genoemde bevolkingsgroepen zich de komende jaren ontwikkelt als gevolg van verdere harmonisatie en of de voorschoolse opvang- en educatievoorzieningen voldoende toegerust zijn om nieuwe groepen gebruikers te bedienen. Onderzoek toonde dat de basale sociaal-emotionele kwaliteit van de Nederlandse kinderopvang ‘voldoende’ is naar internationale maatstaven, maar dat de kwaliteit op het gebied van ontwikkelingsstimulering en educatieve activiteiten daarbij achterblijft. De kwaliteit van voorscholen en peuterspeelzalen is vooral onderzocht in het perspectief van taal- en cognitieve stimulering. Onbekend is wat de basale sociaal-emotionele kwaliteit  is van deze voorzieningen. Het onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd in een representatieve steekproef van ca. 265 instellingen voor voorschoolse opvang, peuterwerk en educatie, die deelnemen aan het landelijke Pre-COOL cohortonderzoek. Het onderzoek bestaat uit een breedtestudie onder alle instellingen en een dieptestudie in een representatieve deelsteekproef van ca. 60 instellingen. Met vragenlijsten en systematische observaties wordt informatie verzameld over de structurele kwaliteit (groepsgrootte, staf-kindratio, opleiding en specifieke training van de staf), de emotionele proceskwaliteit (sensitieve responsiviteit van de staf, autonomiebevordering, structuur bieden) en de educatieve proceskwaliteit  (m.b.t. ontluikende schooltaal, geletterdheid, gecijferdheid, ‘science’). Gebruik wordt gemaakt van o.a. de CLASS Toddler en de ECERS-E.

• dr. Hanna Mulder
• prof. dr. Paul Leseman

Pre-COOL is a national representative cohort study in which about 2900 children are followed from age 2 to age 6 (2nd kindergarten grade of primary school) in order to determine the effects of early childhood education and care provisions on child social-emotional and cognitive development. From age 6, part of the cohort will be included in the COOL cohort study and followed until age 18, so that in due time conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of early childhood provisions in the long-term. Pre-COOL is carried out by a consortium of Kohnstamm Institute, ITS and the University of Utrecht. Within the consortium, Utrecht University is especially responsible for the development of child tests, observation instruments and questionnaires.

• dr. Hanna Mulder
• prof. dr. Paul Leseman
• dr. Jan Boom
• dr. Carolien van Houdt

• Kohnstamm Instituut