Certification

Student Developmental Level - Early Childhood (Birth-Grade 2)

For Initial and Professional teacher certification through the Individual Evaluation pathway and the Additional Classroom Teaching Certificate (Must Hold a Valid Certificate) pathway, candidates need to complete six semester hours of pedagogical (professional education) coursework that is appropriate for the student developmental level of the certificate title.

Coursework

For the early childhood (birth-grade 2) developmental level, acceptable coursework includes pedagogical courses that would be required in an early childhood education teacher preparation program. Examples of acceptable courses include, but are not limited to:

  • Early childhood teaching methods
  • Early childhood curriculum
  • Early childhood development
  • Literacy development for young children (emergent literacy)

Pedagogical coursework must address the early childhood developmental level. The following table lists the acceptable and not acceptable developmental level(s) for early childhood pedagogical coursework.

Pedagogical courses that include the following developmental level(s) are
Acceptable

Pedagogical courses that include the following developmental level(s) are
Not Acceptable

  • Early Childhood only
  • Early Childhood and Childhood (through pre-adolescence)
  • Childhood only
  • Middle Childhood only
  • Adolescent
  • Life Span

If you have a New York State College Recommendation for either Initial Literacy (Birth-Grade 6) certification or Initial certification at the early childhood (birth–grade 2) level in your TEACH account, the student developmental level coursework requirement will be marked as met on your certificate application at the early childhood level.

Additional Information

You could review course catalogs of institutions of higher education that offer early childhood education programs leading to certification to learn about pedagogical courses at the early childhood developmental level. New York State institutions that have registered early childhood education programs can be found on the Inventory of Registered Programs.

Last Updated: September 29, 2020