200 | Quality Early Learning
INTRODUCTION Effective leadership and management1 are critical for the delivery of quality in ECE centers and have a positive effect on children’s learning, health, and social outcomes as well as their well-being. Growing empirical evidence demonstrates that a leader’s role and actions affect student outcomes and that, after teachers, ECE center management is likely to be the second most important in-school determinant of learning (Bloom et al. 2015; Fryer, Levitt, and List 2015; Leithwood et al. 2004; Robinson 2007). Moreover, sound management systems are critical to achieving quality. This chapter reviews the evidence on the contribution of school leaders to ECE quality. It also looks at management and policies that lead to quality learning for children in ECE. In high-income countries, management systems, policies and procedures, and general management expertise are widely available. This may not be the case in LMICs. Leadership responsibilities may not be clearly defined, and many countries have no consistent cadre of trained and qualified teachers or school leaders and may rely heavily on informal arrangements, with teachers filling the role of leaders but without specific qualification criteria. Most LMICs lack the “top down” infrastructure, management training, operational resources, and practical administration and finance skills to run efficient and effective services. Anecdotal evidence suggests that most LMICs also lack evidence-based, high-quality pedagogy and opportunities for professional development at a system scale. Consequently, most principals in LMICs have neither a strong pedagogical background nor management skills, leading to inefficient management practices and hampering the quality of ECE. This lack of professionalization is not unique to ECE (for a review, see Adelman and Baron 2019). Establishing effective leadership and management in ECE centers is, however, both more challenging and more urgent than in the rest of the education system. The challenge is compounded by the fact that ECE services tend to be delivered by a mixture of differently motivated profit-seeking and not-for-profit chains and a plethora of micro-businesses. These factors have led to a fragmented ECE system within LMICs, with a splintered workforce that currently requires ECE leaders who are more capable, better trained, more highly qualified, and much better resourced and supported than they are currently. “New and improved” leaders could shape a fairer culture and a higher quality of ECE services. These principals would enable better management practices and hence better student outcomes. Evidence on the impact of more effective leadership on students’ learning outcomes in ECE centers in LMICs is limited. Most such studies have
