Background and development

Valssi is part of the national framework for the evaluation of early childhood education and care. Valssi is being developed as part of the ‘Varhaiskasvatuksen laadun arvioinnin kehittäminen ja järjestäjien tuki’ (‘Developing the quality evaluation of early childhood education and care and support for organisers’) project in 2020–2023. Content development is handled by a group of experts appointed for the project, while technical development is handled by CSC in collaboration with FINEEC and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

  • Project plan (in Finnish): Link
  • Expert group (in Finnish): Link
  • Public wiki for the technical development of Valssi (in Finnish): Link

Theoretical background

In 2018, FINEEC published an outline of factors affecting the quality of ECEC based on ECEC legislation, steering documents and research. In conjunction with this, FINEEC also published the quality indicators for ECEC, which verify the essential and desirable properties of high-quality early childhood education and care. You can learn more about the document, the theoretical background and key evaluation concepts here: Link

Development of Valssi

2016

  • FINEEC’s first public office related to ECEC is established.
  • A long-term evaluation plan that includes working groups and consultations is drawn up.

2017

  • A report on the current state of ECEC evaluation (Mikkola et al., 2017) is published (in Finnish): Link

2018

  • The project’s 1st expert group starts its work.
  • Guidelines and recommendations for evaluating the quality of early childhood education and care (Vlasov et al., 2018) are published: Link
  • FINEEC organises training and presentations on the quality evaluation of and preparation of indicators for ECEC.

2019

  • Quality evaluation training events continue.
  • The planning of evaluation processes, system and tools is started.
  • A technical description of the quality evaluation system is prepared.

2020

  • The project’s 2nd expert group starts its work.
  • The development of the quality evaluation system and evaluation tools is launched.
  • The definition of quality criteria commences in collaboration with researchers.
  • The piloting of evaluation tools is started in autumn 2020.

2021

  • The development of the system, tools and processes continues.
  • The 2nd expert group’s operating terms is extended.
  • A steering group is appointed for the development of the system.
  • The piloting of the evaluation tools is concluded: Link
  • The ECEC Evaluation Network commences operation. More information on the Evaluation Network (in Finnish): Link
  • Mapping of user experiences.

2022

  • The development of the system, tools and processes continues.
  • Network cooperation is continued.
  • Provisions on the system are laid down in the Act on the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre: joint controller, disclosure of data and common interfaces with the national data warehouse for early childhood education and care (Varda).
  • FINEEC informs and trains ECEC management and personnel on the use of the system.

2023

  • Valssi and the evaluation tools are deployed in phases.
  • Valssi is piloted with selected ECEC organisers from March 2023 onwards.
  • Valssi is opened to all ECEC organisers and service providers in August 2023.
  • User training events continue and FINEEC supports organisers in the deployment of the system.

2024

  • The development of the system and evaluation processes continues.
  • FINEEC provides training to ECEC organisers and creates support material for evaluation.
  • The possibilities of carrying out the national collections of ECEC evaluation data using Valssi will be realised during the 2024–2027 evaluation plan term.

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