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Following on from successful early intervention programs abroad, the Netherlands also introduced a number of different programs to tackle educational disadvantage in preschool and early years education. Studies that investigate the effects of Dutch early childhood interventions have been published since 2000. This meta-analytic review study summarizes the findings from 21 experimental comparisons which study some 50,000 children in the period between 2000–2015, with a total of 165 outcome measures. The aggregate effect of early childhood interventions compared with standard preschool and early years groups is not statistically significant. The disappointing results indicate that special early childhood education programs currently offer no added value for the development of young children in the Dutch context over and above regular preschool and early years groups. A focus for Dutch policy is to improve future practice based on scientific evidence around effective approaches to ECEC. Further, the implementation of study designs with more experimental control would strengthen the current knowledge base.

The article deals with issues related to the assessment of the quality of early childhood and preschool education. Testing of approaches shows the efficacy of the assessment of structure in union with the educational process and the educational outcome. According to the Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education the quality of educational process is correlated to the curriculum, methods and techniques of positive socialization, models for the organization of educational activity, the concept of social partnership and network interaction between institutions etc. The quality of education is a way of achieving the goals of the Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education: positive socialization, the individualization of education, support for children’s initiatives. The system of evaluation for preschool education quality is based on the pedagogical structure for the individualization of education - conditions of support and encouragement as well as the design of possibilities. The achievement of the targets as a result of the implementation of the Program is directly connected to the creation of a social situation for the development of the child. The solution to the problem of the quality of education is reflected in educational initiatives that focus on strengthening the position of professional development for teachers. The tools, indicators and criteria for the quality assessment must take into account the specifics of the early childhood and preschool periods.

The issue of pre-school education quality has a long history in Russia as its system of preschool education has traditionally been in existence for a long time. On the strength of international practice the author shows that quality assessment of preschool education programs is applicable to different objects and based on different perceptions of quality. The article describes the ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale), an integrated assessment of education quality in preschool educational establishments, in particular, its latest version – the ECERS-R Scale, which has been translated, adapted and tested in different regions of Russia. The author notes that the ECERS scales present a very interesting tool for studying the quality of preschool programs, especially in view of global comparative research since they are indisputable leaders in the amount of countries in which they are used. In addition to high reliability and validity, the Scales have a high level of quality development tools in terms of their reliance on the humanistic pedagogy of early childhood development. This experience proves to be highly beneficial in the Russian context because the Federal State Educational Standard for pre-school education introduced five educational areas which are almost identical to those on the list of subscales and indicators contained in these tools.