Certification
Student Developmental Level - Early Childhood Education Birth-Grade 2
For the early childhood (birth-grade 2) developmental level, you must complete six semester-hours (s.h.) of coursework focused on early childhood education. Acceptable coursework includes pedagogical courses that would be required in an early childhood education teacher preparation program. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- methods and strategies for assessing and teaching young children (ages 0-7)
- literacy development for young children (ages 0-7)
- early childhood curriculum and instruction in content
- approaches to teaching and learning in grades pre-K through Grade 2
- managing the early childhood classroom
- early childhood development for diverse learners
Unacceptable courses include those that focus on:
- life span developmental psychology
- child and adolescent psychology
- coursework spanning grades K-12
- middle level/middle school education
- secondary education
If you need further clarification, you should review college catalogs of institutions that offer early childhood teacher certification programs to learn about the types of courses that focus on this developmental level. New York State institutions of higher education that have approved early childhood education programs may be identified by using the Inventory of Registered Programs. You can search for programs leading to teacher certification and select: E CHLDHD BIRTH-2.