knowledge EDI, while controlling for all other factors such as observed classroom quality and structural characteristics. For example, a 100% increase in teachers with a post-secondary education degree is associated with a 1.073 to 1.103 unit increase in children’s social competence, holding all else constant. For both social competence EDI and communication and general knowledge EDI, the coefficient on percent of teachers with post-secondary education is larger than that of senior secondary education. For the other three EDI domains, we find no significant relationship between increasing the share of teachers with higher levels of education and children’s developmental outcomes.

Across the models, we find that increasing the mean years of teaching experience at the center level does not predict higher EDI scores. In fact, for the physical health and well-being domain and the communication and general knowledge domain, an additional year of average teaching experience in a center is associated with a 0.013 to 0.015 unit decrease (for physical health and well-being)or a 0.044 to 0.045 unit decrease (for communication and general knowledge), holding all else constant. In interpreting these results, it is important to keep in mind that these data are aggregated at the center level and do not link specific children to specific teachers.

For previous experience in ECED, we find null results on children’s development. Similarly, we find no significant associations between teachers who have received teacher training and child development outcomes.

# _Structural characteristics_

Over and above aspects of the quality of the learning environment, we find that the quantity of exposure (or dose) of early childhood education is important to children’s developmental outcomes in two out of five EDI domains. An additional hour per week of early childhood education is associated with a 0.039 unit increase in a child’s language and cognitive development and a 0.028 unit increase in social competence development, controlling for all other variables. In contrast, we find null results for student-to-staff ratio on children’s developmental outcomes, except in physical health and well-being.

# **7. Reassessing the quality-outcome relationship using the Indonesia ECED standard**

The results so far show that ECERS-R is a significant predictor of child development in two domains: physical health and well-being and social competence. While the ECERS-R is a useful measure to compare the quality of early childhood programs across various settings, it can be a challenge for policy makers to interpret the ECERS-R within a particular context. For example, a closer look at the items in the ECERS-R reveals that some items may be less relevant than others in our study’s setting—poor, rural villages in Indonesia. Item 27 outlines the provision of TV, video or computers for classroom activities. Item 3 describes the provision of soft furnishings such as carpeted space and cushions for children’s relaxation and comfort. While all of these provisions would be great to have, they are often unfeasible in rural, resource-constrained environments. In over 3 weeks of field observation, we rarely saw soft furnishings—sitting on the floor for children and adults alike is the norm in rural Indonesia – even when soft furnishings are available. We did encounter one center with a computer lab during piloting of the ECERS-R but this was a state-ofthe-art center where not one but three international donors had channeled funding.

Indeed, recent studies recommend researchers and practitioners alike to pay more attention to how measures of quality like ECERS-R align with local regulations and accreditation standards (Gordon et al., 2013). In an effort to align the ECERS-R data with the reality of the Indonesian 12