July 27, 2016
A recently published article in the scholarly journal Early Education and Development commends the Toronto Children's Services' Assessment for Quality Improvement (AQI) tool as an accurate way to determine quality in early learning and child care settings. That endorsement makes the AQI the only peer-reviewed and validated improvement tool for child care developed in Canada.
"We always believed that Toronto child care is of the highest quality in Canada," said Councillor James Pasternak (Ward 10 York Centre), Chair of the Community Development and Recreation Committee. "Now we have evidence that demonstrates that our quality measurement tool will only improve the quality of early learning in our city."
The AQI gauges a wide variety of child care elements, including the quality of the interactions between caregivers and children, the appropriateness of developmental activities for different age groups, the frequency of toy cleaning and the ways children's self-esteem is supported.
"We are committed to promoting and supporting a high-quality early learning and child care system for Toronto's families," said Elaine Baxter-Trahair, General Manager of City of Toronto Children's Services. "Parents can be assured that the online ratings for their child's early learning program accurately represents that program's quality."
The City of Toronto partnered with the University of Toronto's Ontario Studies in Education (OISE) over several years to create the questions, design and implement the studies to determine whether the AQI truly measured quality in early learning settings, and examine the results of those studies.
"Through this research process, we are confident that the City’s measure of quality, and the process the City uses to assess quality, are accurate and fair,” said Dr. Michal Perlman, Associate Professor at OISE/UT. "The transparent nature of the AQI also creates accountability in how tax dollars are spent."
Child care operators who participate in the City of Toronto's AQI program are assessed annually and their ratings are available at
http://bit.ly/29Q8SWO.
Other municipalities that have adopted the City of Toronto's AQI include Thunder Bay, Muskoka and Durham.
The Early Education and Development journal's article about the assessment tool is available at
http://bit.ly/29WMvjK.
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit
http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.
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Media contact: Aggie Fortier, Strategic Communications, 416-397-5326, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
