LEVANTE: the Learning Variability Network Exchange

A global research network to improve our understanding of variability in learning and development through coordinated data collection.

Call for Proposals

The 2026 Call for Proposals to join the LEVANTE network is now open. Learn more about the submission process and selection criteria to become a funded participating site.

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Dimensions of variability

Explore variability in children’s learning and development

Learning variability is a hallmark of children’s day-to-day lives – encompassing variability within their own behavior, both within and across functional areas; diversity within the peer learning groups to which they belong; and variability in the contexts they encounter each day. Variability is therefore the norm, rather than the exception. In order for children to reach their full potential, we need to shift the focus from group means to variability, across its different dimensions.

The LEarning VAriability NeTwork Exchange (LEVANTE) aims to improve our knowledge about the complexities of developmental variability and its impact on learning outcomes. It will furthermore allow a better understanding of the predictors of variability, processes that underlie variability, consequences of variability, and implications for interventions with children.

Updates and insights

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Blog | 28 July 2026

Spotlight on LEVANTE’s Leuphana Site: Understanding socio-communicative development through children’s eyes

Early life experiences crucially shape human development, particularly during the period from birth to preschool age. Perhaps one of the biggest paradoxes in developmental psychology is that there is only very limited data about authentic, unfiltered family life, let alone cross-cultural data that allows for comparing everyday experiences in different parts of the world. To […]

Blog | 01 July 2026

Understanding the Contexts of Child Development to Inform Policy

Detailed evidence on the contexts that children grow up in and how these contexts affect children’s development and learning can support policy-makers’ decision processes. LEVANTE aims to collect this detailed evidence using measures spanning many interconnected levels of the child’s environment (Figure 1), ranging from the individual level (the child’s own development) to very broad […]

Blog | 09 May 2026

When Your Ruler Is Wrong: How Rescoring Improves Measurement in LEVANTE

Adaptive tests are remarkable tools: instead of giving every child the same 50 questions, the computer picks the next question based on how the child is doing, zeroing in on their ability with a much shorter test. In practice, that efficiency depends on one thing going right: the system has to know how hard each […]

The different dimensions of learning variability

Learning variability is central to children’s lives, affecting their behavior, peer group dynamics, and learning outcomes.

Within-individual variability: Representation of children on different scale lines

Understanding variation within and across skills and behaviors over time

Children behave inconsistently over time and across skills; why is this, and how can it be influenced productively? Their behaviors change not only with development, but also within much shorter timeframes, from months to weeks or even within a few hours. Why do children show inconsistent behavior, skills, knowledge, and characteristics from one time point to the next? What are the explanations for such variability, and what is its developmental purpose? Given the complexity of these within-person variations, how can educators, parents, or caregivers know what a particular child needs in a particular moment?

Within-Group Variability: Illustration of children playing music, games and on a computer

Embracing heterogeneity in learning groups

Children spend much of their time learning in social groups such as in daycare settings, classrooms, and formal or informal out-of-school learning experiences. Each child brings their own unique needs and experiences to these groups, which then influence how they learn and participate. How can education systems be designed so that instruction meets the needs of heterogeneous groups of children? How can group instruction in social environments, like classrooms, both cater to the needs of individual students and take advantage of learning variability for improved learning for all?

Contextual Variability: Illustration of thought bubbles showing a child using maths in everyday contexts

Preparing children to successfully navigate and thrive through contexts and time

Children encounter many learning contexts throughout their day – home, math class, playground – and they are expected to navigate successfully within each context. Multiplying the number of contexts over years and decades, children need to be equipped with the ability to adapt to and shape the different contexts surrounding them. This adaptive flexibility becomes therefore instrumental to their long-term success. What are the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and characteristics that prepare children to learn in future contexts? How might environments be described so that we may better understand how to facilitate children’s successful adaptation within and across them? How can and should the child’s present learning benefit their future learning?

Key features

What makes LEVANTE unique?

Explore the key features that make LEVANTE a unique framework to investigate the impact of variability in childhood on learning

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Open-access, gold-standard assessment measures on development and learning

To understand the nature of developmental variability alongside its counterpart, developmental continuity, LEVANTE provides researchers with open-access to direct and indirect holistic assessment measures of core constructs, enabling them to gather a large, rich, multi-context dataset measuring change over time in children aged 2 – 12 years.

More on LEVANTE core assessment measures

Unique, field-leading open-access database

The LEVANTE Data Repository (LDR) serves as a centralized repository for the standardized datasets generated via this framework, and allows for the open sharing and reuse of these data. Hosted by Stanford University, LDR is the first cross-cultural, multidisciplinary open dataset that captures the richness and diversity of child development and learning.

Coordinated data collection across teams

LEVANTE is designed to enable coordinated data collection around measuring children’s variability within and across individuals, groups, and cultures. Distributed across groups and populations via a call for proposals, data collection will result in an interrelated set of accelerated, longitudinal studies that use the same sampling plan and core measure set.

Guidelines on sampling and administration