Pasadena EDI

EDI Data & Use in the Community

EDI Data from 2019-2020

Introduction

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a community snapshot of children’s development, health and school readiness for Pasadena. It describes children’s well-being in five areas of development known to predict later success in school and in life: 1) Physical Health & Well-Being; 2) Social Competence; 3) Emotional Maturity; 4) Language & Cognitive Skills; and 5) Communication Skills & General Knowledge.

Dr. Dan Offord and Dr. Magdalena Janus developed the EDI at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University in Canada in the late 1990s. Since then, it has been implemented in over 30 countries, including its introduction in the United States in 2008.  The UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities serves as the Technical Assistance administrator and licensee for the national administration of the EDI in the US.

The EDI is helpful in predicting later health, education, and social outcomes and is used to engage diverse groups to better understand the needs and assets of children in the community and collectively develop solutions. Understanding how children are doing in every neighborhood allows community members, educators, organizations that provide services and supports to families, as well as policy makers, to make informed decisions about where and what types of investments and policies could be put in place to support children and families.

Pasadena Unified School District views the EDI data results as critical to their understanding of the needs existing across the entire community it serves. As an Open Enrollment district, families are able to apply to attend any school within the district’s boundary. In other words, the student population at any given school can be comprised of students from all across the city of Pasadena. Therefore, the information allows for PUSD to appropriately prepare for and support its young students holistically at all sites, regardless of neighborhood of residence.

The EDI is a questionnaire completed by kindergarten teachers for each child in their class a few months into the school year.  It is not a diagnostic or screener tool for individual children. Student names or other identifying information on individual students are not shared with results. Instead, information collected using the EDI is reported at a group (population) level (e.g. for a census tract, neighborhood, city, etc.) and is never reported on individual children.

More information about the EDI can be found  here .

A Snapshot of the 2019 - 2020 EDI Collection in Pasadena:  

The results in this Story Map reflect data collection by participating kindergarten teachers during the 2019 - 2020 school year(s).

Teacher Training Information

Pasadena Unified School District opted to use a Professional Development/substitute release day for training. Teachers were trained the morning of the training day (in person), and then used the remaining of their work day to complete data collection.

Students are not present for the training session or while teachers are completing their EDI questionnaires. The format of teacher training and teacher compensation for participation are determined by the leaders at participating district(s) and/or the EDI funder for the community.

Using the EDI for Change

Within Pasadena, the EDI has been used in a number of ways by the city, community organizations, and Pasadena Unified School District.

 Early Childhood Development Master Plan : The City used EDI as a catalyst to develop an updated  early childhood development policy  which then led to the creation of an Independent Office for the Young Child (within Library Services).  This effort dedicated an Early Childhood Coordinator to facilitate alignment of early childhood services across the city including participation from all of the City agencies. Together, these efforts led to the acceptance of a multi-year  Early Childhood Development Master Plan  where the EDI was used to allocate early childhood resources to a specific geographic location within the City found to have high levels of vulnerability on the EDI. The City also engaged parents in a series of conversations about EDI data and the supports they felt they needed. These conversations led to the formation of newly launched an early childhood service hub network of family resource centers called Growing Together Pasadena. Most recently, the Office of the Young Child has led a cross-department engagement effort for early childhood to better address and align activities for young children within the municipality. As part of this effort, they are in the early phases of bringing in the transportation sector at a City level, as well as the local Chamber of Commerce. Pasadena has also been successful in using EDI in writing grant applications and securing funding through a demonstrated need.

Early Childhood Development and Early Learning Task Force: As part of their local master plan, the mayor has convened an Early Childhood Development and Early Learning Task Force, whose membership will meet twice a month to study the best practices for implementing early childhood programs and discuss any policy changes that are needed to support the city’s youngest residents.