Data Collection Methods in Early Childhood Services Globally Part 2

Good morning ECI Operators and Practitioners. These are the other two major types of data collection that are presently used to obtain information in early childhood services globally: household surveys and special studies of programs and children.

HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS

A household survey is the recommended data collection method for gathering data from a sample of families with preschool-aged children. If the sample is carefully selected, the findings can represent the entire population of families with young children living in the nation. For all countries, this is the recommended method of data collection to obtain estimates of coverage percentages. It may be possible for a country to use (1) enrollment numbers from program questionnaires and (2) a good recent estimate of the total population of children in a specific age-range to calculate the percentage of coverage.

SPECIAL STUDIES OF PROGRAMS AND CHILDREN

Special studies of programs and special studies of children are combined here because they both use the same methodology, that is, the selection of a representative sample from the population of either programs or children. This category of studies is an important one because the findings found in a study with a sample of programs or children can be generalized to the total set of programs or children. In general, program studies are used to explore what is actually happening in early childhood programs, either institutions or home visit programs, whereas child studies are used either to investigate the behaviors and activities of children in these two major types of programs or to evaluate program effectiveness.