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The principal aim of the proposed study is to collect pilot data from 300 children aged 5-12 for the LEVANTE project, from local schools in the London, Ontario, Canada region, through collaboration with the Thames Valley District School Board and the London Catholic District School Board. This pilot data will then be used as part of a larger effort to evaluate the age appropriateness of the core LEVANTE measures, their psychometric properties, and validity. By collecting pilot data at different sites with diverse geographical localization and languages it will become possible to evaluate the degree to which the core LEVANTE measures can be used in different contexts. Furthermore, the proposed pilot study will help to evaluate data pipelines developed for LEVANTE including the measurement platform, data validation tool, and data repository architecture.

The LEVANTE pilot in Colombia, based at Universidad de los Andes, builds on an initial data collection effort focused on the translation and contextual adaptation of LEVANTE’s core measures into Spanish. This first phase involved children aged 5–12, their caregivers, and teachers, and combined individual applications with focus groups to assess task comprehension, instruction clarity, and overall suitability. It also helped identify practical considerations for implementation in Global South contexts, including infrastructure, stakeholder engagement, and readiness for large-scale data collection.

A second pilot, led by Julián P. Mariño and Carolina Maldonado and involving the Early Childhood Education Research Group and the Evaluation Center, extends this work to younger children and a longitudinal design. Data collection is planned over two to four years in Bogotá and a second region in Colombia. This phase includes the qualitative adaptation and validation of LEVANTE tasks for children aged 2–4, followed by three annual waves of data collection with approximately 250 children in daycare settings, along with their caregivers and teachers. An additional component—classroom observations of teacher–child interactions—is planned, subject to further funding.

Together, these efforts strengthen the adaptation of LEVANTE measures across contexts and age groups, while building the foundations for longitudinal research on early learning and development in Colombia.

The data collection at this pilot site will identify the psychometric properties, validity, age appropriateness, and internationalization capabilities of the Core Measures designed for LEVANTE, their longitudinal stability and variability, as well as predictive relationships amongst the measures over time. This site will contribute three sets of data: a test dataset including all measures and questionnaires, a retest dataset, and a two-year follow-up dataset for the Core Measures. LEVANTE Core Measures will be administered online to children between 5 and 12 years and a primary caregiver. Furthermore, they will contribute data to evaluate data pipelines developed for LEVANTE including the measurement platform, data validation tool, and data repository architecture.

The planned research will focus on psychometric analysis of the data collected by the three LEVANTE pilot sites to assess the suitability of the measures for usage in the larger-scale LEVANTE project. The research aims are: 1. Analyse pilot data to evaluate psychometric performance of individual tasks and surveys slated for inclusion in the broader framework. 2. Investigate cross-task patterns in pilot data to understand the challenges and opportunities of multi-site data collection and how those might be addressed in practice and analysis. The data and samples from the three LEVANTE pilot studies will undergo analysis using psychometric techniques, such as item response theory and factor analysis. These analyses will examine how each item/trial supports the measurement of the intended constructs, the relations among the constructs, and how the (latent) construct scores differ with age and context. Measurement invariance across child characteristics and context will be evaluated to inform adjustments for future LEVANTE studies.