Chilean early childhood program makes a difference

Author: Elizabeth Gehrman

Published on February 1, 2008
Source: Harvard University Gazette

Late in January, a delegation from Chile visited Harvard to
discuss Un Buen Comienzo ("A Good Start"), an early
childhood education program undertaken in 2006 by the
Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), Harvard
Medical School (HMS), and the David Rockefeller Center
for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), with the Chilean
Ministries of Education and Health and other local
institutions that impart preschool education. The pilot
project and its evaluation, sponsored by Fundación
Educacional Oportunidad, Centro de Estudios Educar, the
World Bank, and Unicef, grew out of Chilean president
Michelle Bachelet's stated commitment to make early
childhood a priority in her administration.
The main focus of the project is language and literacy
skills, with a concomitant emphasis on parental
involvement and child health, particularly pollution-related
respiratory diseases and obesity - which affect nearly 20
percent of Chilean children. Meetings covered a wide
range of topics, including the intensive evaluation of the
project and the impact the program could have on policy
debate in Chile and other Latin American countries.
About two dozen people attended the Jan. 23 session at
the David Rockefeller Center to review the progress made
thus far. Principal investigators on the project Catherine
Snow and Hirokazu Yoshikawa, both professors at HGSE,
presided over the meeting. The evening began with a
presentation by Andrea Rolla, director of research at the
Centro de Estudios Educar in Santiago and director of the
project in Chile. "Chile is a middle-income country that
goes from the desert to the Patagonias," she said, "so it's
very diverse. The economy has done very well, so now
our focus is on improving social policy, especially the
quality of education."
Research shows that high-quality preschool education is
one of the best investments a country can make in its
future, and that language and literacy skills are crucial to
lifelong learning. Worldwide, children from low-income
families have lower levels of reading comprehension, but
in Chile, said Rolla, "More than 50 percent of parents from
all different social classes report never reading books to
their children, which in general leads to low levels of oral
language skills in Chilean children and, later on, low levels
of reading comprehension."
Un Buen Comienzo (UBC) - which in its first year operated
in 26 classrooms in four different centers, affecting the
lives of nearly 600 children - aims to help improve
children's literacy by encouraging parents to get involved.
"Before [UBC], parents thought their children only came
to our center to eat, play, and sleep," said Rolla,
translating from Spanish a teacher's comment. "Now they
know there's a curriculum here."
"It's a chance for parents to see the abilities of their
children," Rolla added, "and to see their own ability to
teach them. That's often overlooked in Chile." At the same
time, she pointed out, teachers report the project has
given them more trust in parents as co-educators.
UBC is working toward its goals using six monthly cycles
of professional development over the course of two years.
During each cycle, the first week consists of a half-day of
teacher and paraprofessional training, the second of a
coaching visit to each preschool classroom, the third of a
feedback session on the prior week's visit, and the final
week of a team meeting of the teachers and
paraprofessionals at each center. Training all of the adults
who work in the classroom, rather than just the teachers,
has been a change from traditional professional
development provided in Chile. "It's more of a team
approach than was traditional," said Rolla.
The project's health focus attempts to empower classroom
educators to work on health issues themselves, and to
refer children for specialized services as needed.
"Education and health need to be integrated," said
MaryCatherine Arbour, a global health fellow at Brigham
and Women's Hospital who spends a substantial portion of
her time in Chile working on the project. "Children's
cognitive development and their health are interrelated,
and the teachers and paraprofessionals who work with
them in Chile recognize that and want to do more, but feel
they don't have the resources to be able to."
Interventions planned for 2008 include finishing the
second year of professional development in the
demonstration sites, beginning a small-scale randomized
experimental study, and writing a manual for the project
with an accompanying workbook of activities for teachers
to use in the classroom. Within the structure of UBC,
Arbour added, achievable goals for children are to
improve reading comprehension and socio-emotional
development, increase parental involvement, and reduce
absenteeism through respiratory health intervention.
The rigorous evaluation of the project, according to Kit
Barron, regional and area programs coordinator for the
David Rockefeller Center, is "unprecedented for the
developing world. The impact that this project could have
on policy debate in similar countries is tremendous."
development provided in Chile. "It's more of a team
approach than was traditional," said Rolla.
The project's health focus attempts to empower classroom
educators to work on health issues themselves, and to
refer children for specialized services as needed.
"Education and health need to be integrated," said
MaryCatherine Arbour, a global health fellow at Brigham
and Women's Hospital who spends a substantial portion of
her time in Chile working on the project. "Children's
cognitive development and their health are interrelated,
and the teachers and paraprofessionals who work with
them in Chile recognize that and want to do more, but feel
they don't have the resources to be able to."
Interventions planned for 2008 include finishing the
second year of professional development in the
demonstration sites, beginning a small-scale randomized
experimental study, and writing a manual for the project
with an accompanying workbook of activities for teachers
to use in the classroom. Within the structure of UBC,
Arbour added, achievable goals for children are to
improve reading comprehension and socio-emotional
development, increase parental involvement, and reduce
absenteeism through respiratory health intervention.
The rigorous evaluation of the project, according to Kit
Barron, regional and area programs coordinator for the
David Rockefeller Center, is "unprecedented for the
developing world. The impact that this project could have
on policy debate in similar countries is tremendous."