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

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%.

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

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.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

15 June 2023

Contextual information

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

Name: AEDC microdata file.

Frequency: Three-yearly

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

Provider name: Australian Government Department of Education

Provider area: Australian Early Development Census

2018

2021

State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status.

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 zero 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% 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% of MSI items). Children are showing strengths in 50 to 70% 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% 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%) of the 29 MSI items).

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, the AEDC data was collected for 305,015 children, equating to an estimated 95.5% of first year school enrolments based on Australian Bureau Statistics (ABS) schools data. Of the 305,015 children with data collected for the AEDC, 20,646 children (6.8%) were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children. Based on ABS estimates, this equates to an estimated 96.2% 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 will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:

• gender
• remoteness area
• socio‑economic status of the locality.