Concept: Children in Care (CIC) and Educational Outcomes

Introduction

This concept provides an overview of the educational outcome measures for children in care in Manitoba. The content for this concept comes from the MCHP Deliverable The Educational Outcomes of Children in Care in Manitoba by Brownell et al. (2015).

The concept provides a list of data sources and the content of each source for the information provided in this concept; a list of educational outcome measures used in this research with links to a glossary definition for each outcomes and the section in the report describing the outcome measure and the figures provided in the report; a list of factors investigated in the analysis; and a brief discussion of the regression analysis performed with links to the findings and results presented in the report. The concept also includes a list of limitations / cautions related to this type of research.

For more information on children in care, please see the Children in Care (CIC) - Overview of Terminology and Characteristics concept.

Data Sources

The following data sources provide information for the measures related to educational outcomes for children in care. This includes:


• Child and Family Services Application Data contains data on children in care and children living in families receiving protective or support services from Child and Family Services (CFS);
  
• Enrollment, Marks and Assessments (STS/ICAB) Data contains data on enrollment, high school completion, grade 12 standards tests, and grade level assessments; and
  
• Early Development Instrument (EDI) Data contains data on kindergarten aged children and their readiness for school.

Measures of Education Outcomes for Children in Care

In Chapter 4 of The Educational Outcomes of Children in Care in Manitoba deliverable by Brownell et al. (2015), they describe and compare educational outcome measures for the three categories of children in care: Ever in Care, Ever Received CFS Services, and Never in Care / Never Received Services. For more information on children in care and the three in-care categories, please see the section titled Terms and Definitions Related to Children in Care in the Children in Care - Overview of Terminology and Characteristics concept.

The following is a list of educational outcome measures investigated in this research, with links to the glossary definition for each educational outcome measure and the section in the report that describes the measure and discusses the findings, and a list of related figures available in the report. The glossary links provide access to detailed methodological information for each educational outcome measure.

NOTE: The analysis in this chapter of the report presents crude comparisons, meaning they have not been adjusted for any factors. For more detailed information on this, see Chapter 4: Educational Outcomes for Children In Care. Adjusted results are presented in the regression tables located in Appendix 2 of this report.


• Early Development Instrument (EDI) - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Early Development Instrument
    
  • Figure 4.1: Percentage of Students Not Ready for School, by In-Care Category – In One or More Domains
    
  • Figure 4.2: Percentage of Students Not Ready for School, by In-Care Category – In Two or More Domains
    
  • Figure 4.3: Percentage of Students Not Ready for School, by In-Care Category – In Each of the 5 Domains
  
  
• Grade Repetition - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Grade Repetition
    
  • Figure 4.4: Percentage of Students Repeating a Grade, by In-Care Category
  
  
• Grade 3 Assessment in Reading - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Grade 3 Assessment in Reading
    
  • Figure 4.5: Percentage of Students Competent in Grade 3 Reading, by In-Care Category
  
  
• Grade 3 Assessment in Numeracy - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Grade 3 Assessment in Numeracy
    
  • Figure 4.6: Percentage of Students Competent in Grade 3 Numeracy, by In-Care Category
  
  
• Grade 7 Assessment In Mathematics - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Grade 7 Assessment In Mathematics
    
  • Figure 4.7: Percentage of Students Competent in Grade 7 Math, by In-Care Category
  
  
• Grade 7 Assessment in Student Engagement - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Grade 7 Assessment in Student Engagement
    
  • Figure 4.8: Percentage of Students Competent in Grade 7 Engagement, by In-Care Category
  
  
• Grade 8 Assessment in Reading and Writing - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Grade 8 Assessment in Reading and Writing
    
  • Figure 4.9: Percentage of Students Competent in Grade 8 Reading and Writing, by In-Care Category
  
  
• Earned Eight or More Credits in Grade 9 - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Earned Eight or More Credits in Grade 9
    
  • Figure 4.10: Percentage of Students With 8+ Credits in Grade 9, by In-Care Category
  
  
• Grade 12 Standards Tests in Language Arts and Mathematics - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: Grade 12 Standards Tests in Language Arts and Mathematics
    
  • Figure 4.11: Percentage of Teens Passing Grade 12 Language Arts Standards Test, by In-Care Category
    
  • Figure 4.12: Percentage of Teens Passing Grade 12 Mathematics Test, by In-Care Category
  
  
• High School Completion - glossary definition
  
  • Report section: High School Completion
    
  • Figure 4.13: Percentage of Youth Completing High School, by In-Care Category

Factors Associated with Educational Outcomes for Children in Care

In Chapter 5 of The Educational Outcomes of Children in Care in Manitoba deliverable by Brownell et al. (2015), they attempt to identify factors that may be associated with positive educational outcomes for children in care in Manitoba, using characteristics recorded in administrative records held in the MCHP Data Repository.

The analysis compares children in care who have positive outcomes to children in care who did not have these positive outcomes. The educational outcomes examined are the same as the ones described in the section above, except for grade repetition and the grade 12 standards tests. The analysis was conducted separately for each outcome and allowed us to examine a number of different factors at the same time. For each of the educational outcomes, we looked at the following factors to determine whether they were related to how the children in care performed in school.

NOTE: Some of the factors listed below include a link to a glossary term/definition and some link to a definition provided in the Children in Care (CIC) - Overview of Terminology and Characteristics concept.


• average SES of the area (see income quintiles term) the child is from;
  
• average SES of the area (see income quintiles term) of the school the child attends;
  
• age of the child (in months) at the time of the educational assessment being examined;
  
• Indigenous group of the child (see Indigenous peoples term);
  
• legal status of the child within the CFS system;
  
• whether the most recent placement was "kinship" or not
  
• reason for the child being in care (see Reasons for Being Taken Into Care );
  
• age that the child first entered into care;
  
• whether the child was born small for gestational age (see size for gestational age term);
  
• the age of mother at the birth of her first child - (see Mother's Age at First Birth term) - not included for the analyses of number of credits earned in grade 9 or high school completion because data was unavailable far enough back in time;
  
• sex of the child;
  
• school region (urban or rural);
  
• whether the child's family had ever received income assistance;
  
• diagnosis of a developmental disability;
  
• diagnosis of a mental disorder;
  
• maternal substance use during pregnancy - (see substance use by mother during pregnancy ) - (available only for EDI, and grade 7 outcomes);
  
• substantiated abuse of the child;
  
• currently versus previously in care at time of assessment;
  
• total number of in-care episodes experienced by the child (see episode of care);
  
• total number of placements experienced by the child;
  
• the length of time the child had spent in care; and
  
• proportion of days absent from school (examined for EDI only).

The Regression Analysis

The regression analysis performed is presented in table format and these results are for children in care only. The tables include a list of all the factors, the levels examined, the direction of the association (increase represented by an up arrow and decrease represented by a down arrow) and whether the factor had any statistical significance related to the outcome. For more detailed information on how the analysis was performed and how to interpret the regression table information, please read Chapter 5: Factors Associated With Educational Outcomes for Children in Care of the report.

The following list provides a link to each section in the report that describes how the factors were analyzed and the tables presenting the results of the regression analysis performed. Links to the glossary terms defining and describing each of these educational outcome measures are provided in the Measures of Education Outcomes for Children in Care section above.


• Early Development Instrument (EDI)
  
  • Table 5.1: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Kindergarten Students "Not Ready" in One or More EDI domains
  
  
• Grade 3 Assessment in Reading
  
  • Table 5.2: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Grade 3 Reading Assessment
  
  
• Grade 3 Assessment in Numeracy
  
  • Table 5.3: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Grade 3 Numeracy Assessment
  
  
• Grade 7 Assessment in Mathematics
  
  • Table 5.4: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Grade 7 Mathematics Assessment
  
  
• Grade 7 Student Engagement
  
  • Table 5.5: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Grade 7 Student Engagement Assessment
  
  
• Grade 8 Assessment in Reading and Writing
  
  • Table 5.6: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Grade 8 Reading and Writing Assessment
  
  
• Earning Eight or More Credits in Grade 9
  
  • Table 5.7: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with Earning 8+ Credits in Grade 9
  
  
• High School Completion
  
  • Table 5.8: Regression Analysis of Factors Associated with High School Completion

Limitations / Cautions

The following is a list of limitations / cautions associated with this type of research:


• There are many factors that affect how well children do in school that could not be measured in this report. For example, whether and how often children are read to and spoken to at home or supported with their school work, and the quality of relationships between children and adults in their lives, can have an impact on school outcomes for children in care and not in care. Data on these kinds of factors are not available in the MCHP Repository.
  
• The data in the Repository do not include measures of a number of characteristics of children that may have an impact on educational outcomes, such as child resilience, presence of a mentor in the child’s life, quality of the placement, and important measures of family functioning, for both biological and foster families.
  
• Additionally, school-level factors, such as programs in schools supporting children with learning challenges, could not be measured with the data in the Repository.