Socio-economic outcome area 4

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive in their early years

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Contextual information

AEDC Multiple Strengths Indicator

Highly developed, well developed and emerging strengths

Dashboard snapshot: The data below are the most recent at the time of preparing the July 2023 report. Please go to the dashboard to access the current data.

Measure

AEDC Multiple Strengths Indicator (highly developed, well developed and emerging strengths)

Nationally in 2021, 37.7 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children commencing school were assessed in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) as having highly developed strengths, 23.7 per cent were assessed as having well developed strengths and 38.6 per cent were assessed as having emerging strengths (figure SE4d.1).

Since the 2018 baseline, the assessments of developmental strengths for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children has seen a decrease in the proportion assessed as having highly developed strengths (down 1.3 percentage points) and an increase in the proportion assessed as having emerging strengths (up 1.0 percentage points). The proportion assessed as having well developed strengths increased 0.4 percentage points.

Figure SE4d.1 shows the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the first year of full time schooling assessed in the Australian Early Development Census as having highly developed, well developed and emerging strengths, by year. More details can be found within the text near this image.
Data in figure SE4d.1 (%)
Description520182021
Emerging strengths37.638.6
Well developed strengths23.323.7
Highly developed strengths39.037.7

Indicator data specifications

Indicator SE4d: AEDC Multiple Strengths Indicator (MSI)

Related outcome:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive in their early years.

Related target:

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track in all five domains of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) to 55 per cent.

Indicator:

AEDC Multiple Strengths Indicator (highly developed, well developed and emerging strengths)

Measure

The measure is defined as:

Numerator — number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the first year of full time schooling assessed in the AEDC as having highly developed, well developed and emerging strengths

Denominator — total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the first year of full time schooling

and is presented as a percentage.

Indicator established:

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

Latest dashboard update for the indicator:

15 June 2023

Indicator type:

Contextual information

Interpretation of change:

A high or increasing proportion of children with highly developed or well developed strengths is desirable.

Data source:

Name: AEDC microdata file.

Frequency: Three-yearly

Documentation (links): https://www.aedc.gov.au

Data provider:

Provider name: Australian Government Department of Education

Provider area: Australian Early Development Census

Baseline year:

2018

Latest reporting period:

2021

Disaggregations:

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

Computation:

Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 100

Counting rules

The MSI is a strength-based measure that provides information on children’s developmental strengths as they commence full time school.

The MSI uses responses to the Australian version of the Early Development Instrument (AvEDI), the Instrument used in the AEDC. Responses primarily from the social and emotional maturity domains are used, although responses from all five domains of child development are drawn upon. The 39 items/questions used to calculate the MSI are AvEDI questions that focus on the more advanced skills, competencies and dispositions children have at school entry.

Children receive a score between 0 and 39 on the MSI, with higher scores indicating that a child has strengths in more of the 39 items.

There are three MSI categories, which are based on cut-offs established using 2009 data.

  • Highly developed strengths – Children with strengths in 28 to 39 MSI items (more than 70 per cent of MSI items). These children are likely to be on track on all five AEDC domains, and show strengths across all AEDC domains.
  • Well developed strengths – Children with strengths in 19 to 27 of the MSI items (between 50 to 70 per cent of MSI items). Children are showing strengths in 50-70 per cent of the following skills: relating to peers and teachers, self-control, curiosity about the world, working independently, reading and writing simple words, communicating effectively with peers and teachers, and storytelling.
  • Emerging strengths – Children with strengths in 18 or less of the MSI items (less than half of MSI items). Children may be meeting developmental expectations when they start school but they do not demonstrate a high number of strengths. Children in this category range from those with strengths in none of the 39 MSI items, to children with strengths in almost half of the MSI items.

Geographical variables are based on the location in which the child resides.

As age is a factor contributing to children’s development, the published AEDC results control for age.

Excludes (both numerator and denominator)

  • children for whom Indigenous status was not stated
  • children without valid scores in any of the five domains. Instruments are flagged as invalid because domain scores are not calculated for: children with special needs; children in class less than one month; children aged less than four years old; or where the teacher is unable to answer at least 75 per cent of items in any given domain
  • children without the sufficient information across the five domains to determine the MSI (Insufficient information: children with missing data on more than 10 (25 per cent) of the 29 MSI items).

Data quality considerations:

See http://www.aedc.gov.au for further information.

The AEDC is a national population measure on how children have developed by the time they start their first year of full time school. Information is collected through a teacher-completed instrument in children’s first year of full time schooling.

For 2021, AEDC data were collected for 305,015 children, equating to an estimated 95.5 per cent of first year school enrolments based on ABS schools data. Of the 305,015 children with data collected for the AEDC, 20,646 children (6.8 per cent) were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children. Based on ABS estimates, this equates to an estimated 96.2 per cent of first year school enrolments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Research conducted in 2007 validated the AEDC for use for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (AEDC Indigenous Adaptation Study). The MSI was developed after the AEDC Indigenous Adaptation Study and therefore the MSI was not part of this validation process.

MSI results can be compared over cycles however it is not possible to determine if changes are significant as the critical difference has not yet been developed for MSI.

Future reporting:

Additional disaggregations required for future reporting:

  • Gender
  • Remoteness area
  • socioeconomic status of the locality.

The Productivity Commission acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures, Country and Elders past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of people who have passed away.