The evaluation of an early childhood development support project using goal programming approach

The aim of this study is to introduce a goal programming based on a holistic approach for the evaluation of "early childhood development support project", which was applied in some cities in Turkey. Like in many other areas, statistical methods are widely used in research on pre-school education. According to the literature, very few studies were found concerning the multi-objective methods and no other study was found using goal programming method as a multi-objective method on pre-school education. In this study, the data were used to construct a goal programming model. as a part of the scope of Early Childhood Development Support Project which was applied to low socioeconomic level children living in shanty houses and have rural,origin. Results of the model indicate that the group of children who lives in shanty houses in satisfactory conditions with 4-6 people is the most successful group. Moreover, results demonstrate that the goal programming method can be used as a complementary tool to statistical methods for the evaluation of preschool educational programs.