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Australian Bureau of Statistics
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4240.0.55.001 - National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection Manual, 2010
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 05/04/2011 First Issue |
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WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Preschool programs in an LDC were not officially recognised as preschool (unless recognised as a school) by WA DoE, and therefore were not included in the 2010 School Census. The Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Data Set (ECEC NMDS) defines that a preschool program can operate in an LDC if the program comprises a structured education program usually provided by a qualified teacher. Jurisdictional collections currently do not have full coverage of preschool programs being delivered in LDC as defined by the ECEC NMDS for the National ECEC Collection. Data sourced from the Child Care Management System (CCMS) is required to achieve full coverage of preschool activity in LDC nationally. CCMS preschool data was not included in the 2010 collection due to the required information not being collected. In the future, the National ECEC Collection aims to include information on preschool programs provided within LDC through the CCMS. Timeliness The collection was undertaken on the DoE census date at 6 August 2010 for a reference week of 2 August to 6 August 2010. Completion of the data processing and validation stage took approximately 2 to 3 months after the collection date, at which time the data were delivered to the ABS. Accuracy Government preschool data was obtained from government primary schools through an administrative system, the INTEGRIS Student Information System (SIS). The Census Module was run within SIS and fed data from the INTEGRIS SIS, into the Schools Census. All government schools were required to participate in the collection. They were also required to complete an aggregate level paper based collection form to meet additional collection requirements for the National ECEC Collection. Non-government schools provided ECEC data on a WA Schools Census spreadsheet which was returned to the Schools Census team. Government and non-government data collected through the Schools Census was then stored in the WA data repository, and extracted for the purposes of the National ECEC Collection. Internal validation processes for the School Census occurred at three different points of the process. The Census module within SIS had a series of in-built validation rules, some of which required the school to edit data before continuing, while other rules generated warnings alerting the user to anomalies. These warnings allowed the user to decide whether data needed amending before the census return was submitted. WA schools commonly rang the Census team for advice at this stage. For government schools, a validation tool allowed administrators to check the integrity of bulk child date of birth data. This first level of validation only applied to WA government schools/preschools. WA non-government schools used an Excel spreadsheet, which incorporated only internal consistency checks. For non-government schools, there was a checklist provided which listed suggestions for validations such as:
WA non-government school data was also subjected to general validation processes by the Schools Census team. The second set of validation processes were run by the census team, using both routine and ad-hoc validation methods to examine data as it was assembled in working files. These processes were designed to be able to effectively investigate new issues. The third set of validation rules were built into the custom software which loaded school census data into the data warehouse, or into the staging phase. Coherence In 2010 DoE supplied only aggregate level data for the National ECEC Collection. Aggregate data collection methodologies using the 2010 ECEC Aggregate National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) did not allow for the identification of multiple enrolments for a single child. Unit record level data was collected from government schools which enabled a degree of checking for duplicates within the government sector. In the collection reference period, a child may be enrolled and attend two or more different preschool programs. Aggregate data from the 2010 WA School Census did not allow identification of unique record. This methodology could only produce episodes of enrolment, and not the enrolment/ attendance of children. 2010 ECEC statistics from WA should be interpreted with care as it is not directly comparable with other jurisdictional data included in the 2010 National ECEC Collection. Due to expected developments to the 2011 School Census, a time series will not be achievable with 2010 data. It is anticipated that time series will be achievable in the future as the WA DoE collection develops in its capacity to capture unit record level child and staff data. Further information on data elements:
Interpretability For government schools, a manual was provided to assist the user with the Census Module, including instructions and validation techniques. For non-government schools, a checklist was provided which included instructions and suggestions for validations. Accessibility National and jurisdictional level information is published in Experimental Estimates of Preschool Education, Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4240.0) and is available on the ABS website. The information contained within this report has been sourced from the WA DoE website, and consultations held between DoE and the ABS. Further information is available on the WA DoE website <http://www.det.wa.edu.au/>.
This page last updated 6 March 2012
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