Teaching the Teachers of Our Youngest Children: The State of Early Childhood Higher Education in New York, 2015
Author: University of California, Berkeley. Center for the Study of Child Care Employment
Date: 2015-12-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Teacher Education Programs,Teacher Competencies,Alignment (Education),Student Teaching,Teacher Educators,Teacher Surveys,Administrator Surveys,Academic Degrees,Educational Change,Educational Objectives,Practicums,Faculty Development,Academic Support Services,Student Personnel Services,Barriers,Family Involvement,Mathematics Instruction,Kindergarten,Preschool Teachers,Transitional Programs

In an effort to reexamine the status of early childhood higher education offerings in New York, the New York Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC) with its partner members, New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute and the New York State Association for the Education of Young Children engaged the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) to conduct this assessment, by implementing the Early Childhood Higher Education Inventory (Kipnis, Ryan, Austin, Whitebook, &amp; Sakai, 2012a). The Inventory is a research tool used to describe the landscape of a state's early childhood degree program offerings at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels, and to provide a portrait of early childhood faculty members. A network of 27 community colleges and 64 public and private colleges and universities offers a complex array of early childhood degree programs, serving prospective and current early childhood practitioners across the state. Twenty-seven public community colleges and one public college/university offer 44 early childhood associate degree programs. Sixty-four colleges and universities offer 58 bachelor's degree programs, 141 master's degree programs, and four doctoral degree programs in early childhood. In the current study, almost three-quarters of associate and master's degree programs reported serving a mix of pre-service students and those already working in the early childhood field. Nearly one-half of bachelor's degree programs reported exclusively targeting pre-service students. Less than 10 percent of all degree programs reported exclusively serving adults already working in the field. The Inventory findings are presented in two sections. &quot;Early Childhood Higher Education Today&quot; examines the extent to which New York early care and education (ECE) higher education programs: (1) offer the knowledge, skills, and experiences associated with effective teaching practice and program leadership; (2) have a faculty workforce prepared to provide early childhood practitioners with the necessary knowledge and skills associated with effective teaching practice and program leadership; and (3) have the resources to support student and faculty success. The second section of this report, &quot;Early Childhood Education, An Evolving Landscape&quot; examines how these institutions of higher education are adapting to emerging knowledge about children's learning and development. [This report was produced with the assistance of Child Trends. For related reports, see ED574303 and ED574300.]