Module 1: What is the EDI?

"Understanding child development at the community level"

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a population-level tool that gives district leaders, policymakers, and community stakeholders a holistic view of how well neighborhoods are supporting child development in the years before kindergarten.

Midway through the school year, kindergarten teachers complete a 103-question survey for every child in their class. The questionnaires cover five domains: physical health and wellbeing, emotional maturity, social competence, language and cognitive skills, and communication and general knowledge. Students are not present and do not take a test. Teachers complete the EDI based on their knowledge of their students, and the data is reported by census tract, never by individual student. Collected once every three years, it tracks how child wellbeing changes over time across entire neighborhoods.

Think of it like early childhood weather radar. It does not track any single raindrop. What it shows is the conditions across an entire community, where children arrive at kindergarten well supported, and where the forecast suggests they may need more support. In other words, where in your community is it sunny and where is it cloudy in terms of childhood wellbeing? We make decisions based on weather radar all the time, now we have a similar resource for childhood development decision making.

One thing worth naming clearly: the EDI is not a screener, not a diagnostic, and not an evaluation of teachers or schools.

History & Context

The EDI is used internationally, and has been implemented nationwide in Canada since 1998, where it originated. A 2021 review of EDI studies reports that the EDI has been adapted and validated in many countries, including Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Peru, Jordan, Mexico, and the United States.

The Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University leads the EDI implementation in Canada, helping provinces and local communities analyze over time how well their young children are doing and develop plans and make investments in improving child outcomes. In the United States, the Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities at UCLA has partnered with organizations to administer the EDI across the nation since 2009.

Unlike many school readiness assessments, the EDI reports on groups of children instead of on individual students. This population-level assessment takes the onus of school-readiness off teachers and schools by measuring how children are doing at the neighborhood level, never at the classroom or individual level. Communities can use this information to support school readiness in the early childhood community as well as how to react to the specific needs of incoming classes of students. This community level information helps place-based efforts engage early childhood partners in a coordinated effort to optimize healthy development for all young children in the years leading up to school.

The EDI can help communities:

• Identify patterns across neighborhoods
• Build shared understanding across partners
• Connect child outcomes to broader community conditions
• Guide planning, alignment, and investment

Data ethics and stewardship

Because the EDI is a population-level measure, it is designed to protect children and families by focusing on group patterns rather than individual results. Responsible use of the EDI means interpreting data carefully, avoiding deficit framing, and using findings to support communities rather than judge them.

What patterns might we notice if we shift from looking at individual children to looking at how groups of children are developing across a community?

EDI results are brought to life through interactive dashboards that map how children are doing across neighborhoods in your community. Rather than rows of numbers, you are looking at a geographic picture, one that makes it immediately visible where children are thriving and where patterns of vulnerability are concentrated. The map does not tell you why things look the way they do, but it tells you where to start asking questions.

Prompts

Where do you see results presented at the community or neighborhood level?

• What does it mean to look at patterns across groups rather than individual children?
• What kinds of questions might this type of view help a community ask?

The EDI means something a little different depending on where you sit. A teacher experiences it as a mid-year observation process. A principal thinks about how to communicate it to staff and families. A superintendent sees it as a district planning tool. A community lead uses it to build the case for early childhood investment with partners. Same data, different entry points.

What everyone shares, regardless of role, is a responsibility to communicate about the EDI accurately. How this tool gets described, in hallways, at board meetings, in community presentations, shapes whether it gets used well or if it's misunderstood. The goal is not just to know what the EDI is, but to be someone who helps others understand it too.

Prompts

• Reflect on how your role connects to children's early experiences and development
• Consider what population-level data can show that individual stories alone cannot
• Begin thinking about what conditions in your community may be shaping child development outcomes

A community used EDI data to move from general concern about school readiness to a more specific understanding of how development patterns differed across neighborhoods. This helped partners align around a shared picture of need and begin asking what local conditions and supports might be influencing those outcomes.

In Arkansas, that story started with Excel by Eight. Founded in 2011 with a holistic vision for child development, E8 and their more than 30 partner organizations saw the EDI as a natural fit for understanding how communities were supporting young children. Beginning in 2018, they piloted the EDI across six counties. The results did not sit on a shelf. They directly shaped the goals of local communities and informed the services provided by Community School Coordinators on the ground. That early work laid the foundation for what is now a statewide effort, led by the Arkansas Research Center with funding from DCCECE, to bring the EDI to every county in Arkansas.

A parent approaches you after a school meeting and says "I heard the school is testing my child for the EDI, what is that about?" You have 30 seconds. What do you say?

OR

Which of the following best describes the EDI?

1. A student readiness screener
2. A teacher evaluation tool
3. A population-level measure of early development
4. A curriculum assessment