Abstracts - Earli

The measures included children’s language and social development, children’s mastering of dailyliving activities as well as various measures of school achievement. In addition, the quality of theschool environment of the second graders as well as the quality of their family environment wasassessed at this point by direct observations and by interviewing teachers and parents. Resultspoint to widespread and, in terms of magnitude, substantial effects of educational quality inKindergarten settings on children’s development and educational progress in both, the short andthe long run. Results are discussed in terms of methodological considerations as well as in regardto policy implications for enhancing developmental and educational progress by improving qualityin family and centre-based settings.Importance of quality characteristics in kindergarten settings as rated by teachers and parents. Across-cultural study conducted in Germany and Vietnam.Tran Thi Bich Tra, National Institute for Educa. Strategy +Curriculum, VietnamWolfgang Tietze, Freie Universität Berlin, GermanyThere is a serious theoretical debate if educational quality can be regarded as a more or lessuniversal construct or if it should be considered (and conceptualized) as a cultural specificconstruct (cf. Dahlberg, Moss & Pence 1999). Either assumption has strong implications for crossculturalcomparisons on educational quality. The present study was designed to test to what extentvarious quality criteria were rated as being important (or non important) in the two culturallydiverse countries, Germany and Vietnam. The study used the quality criteria of the EarlyChildhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R) by Harms, Clifford and Cryer (1998), aninternationally well-known quality assessment instrument. Kindergarten teachers and parents ofkindergarten children in both countries were requested to rate the importance of the quality criteriaof this instrument for the national early education scene. For this purpose, the ECERS qualityindicators (items) were rephrased in a way that their importance could easily be rated by teachersand parents. The procedure followed an approach used by Cryer and Burchinal (1997) and Cryer,Tietze and Wessels (2002). Results point to a high degree of similarity of importance ratings inboth cultures supporting the assumption of a universal concept of educational quality in the twoculturally diverse countries. However, a few quality characteristics appear being unique. Based onthe results, implications for the validity of cross-cultural studies in educational quality arediscussed. It is concluded that the ECERS can meaningfully be used as a quality assessmentinstrument in culturally diverse contexts.Educational quality of all-day schoolsNatalie Fischer, DIPF, GermanyLudwig Stecher, DIPF, GermanySchool effectiveness research has shown that school quality – e.g., consensus and cohesiveness,goal clarity, parental involvement, etc. – fosters both motivational development and academicachievement. According to the extended time all-day schools offer they allow additional time toput this into practice. The focus of our contribution is on the quality of all-day educationalprogrammes (extra-curricular activities) in terms of the general discourse on educational quality.Our data are based on the study of the development of all-day schools (StEG project), supportedby a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. About 400 schools –35.000 students and their parents, 8.000 teachers – participate in StEG. The data are based on thefirst round of this German-wide longitudinal study.– 274 –