Early Childhood Education Receives Face Lift
By Steve Greenbaum
This fall, students coming to Manor College for early childhood education will graduate from a program that has been completely overhauled to meet newly revised Pennsylvania Department of Education standards and provides a much richer, more comprehensive education based on more specialized courses and providing more practical field experience. Moreover, thanks in part to a nine-school articulation agreement signed in April, Manor graduates will know that all of their credits will transfer if they continue their education toward a bachelor’s degree.
Previously, Pennsylvania had three certifications for early childhood education: an early childhood certification covering nursery school to third grade, an elementary education level that included kindergarten to sixth grade, and a secondary level that addressed middle school and high school.
With a national push toward more specialization, and after determining that a K-6 level is too broad, Pennsylvania pioneered the creation of new certification levels that include an early childhood certification for pre-K to fourth grade and a middle level that covers fourth to eighth grade. There is still a secondary, high school level.
According to Cherie Crosby, director of Manor’s Early Childhood Education program, the change allows for more specialization and for what the future teachers are learning to be more specific.
“For most teachers at the early childhood level, they can forget that there is a second half,” Crosby explains.
“Now they get exposure to the later part of a child’s education, providing a better continuum. Put simply, when considering their curriculum, now they have to think, ‘we need to do this, because later they will be doing that.’
“There is more thoughtfulness in the learning opportunities the kids will have as far as the activities they’ll do, the books they’ll read and so on,” Crosby continued.
Crosby calls it “bridging the gap,” saying that whereas before those working in child care centers and elementary schools, and in secondary and higher ed. didn’t necessarily know what each other were doing, now they do.
When the state revised the standards for four-year colleges granting bachelor’s degrees in early childhood education, those institutions had to revise their curricula to meet those standards. As a result, two-year colleges like Manor had to revise their programs to make it easier for students to transfer to the four-year schools.
Crosby credits the previous program director, Melanie Gohdania, for instituting a 180 degree change to Manor’s program, ensuring that all of the standards are met. Gohdania resigned from Manor at the end of 2010 to have her third child. Crosby succeeded her in January, 2011 to continue the transition and move forward with the program.
Gohdania’s focus was on incorporating more courses specific to early childhood development and in-depth methods courses that address how to teach the various subject areas.
She introduced a new course addressing child development from birth to nine years old and she added specialty courses that individually address how to teach subjects like language arts, science, math and social studies, whereas previously there was one course that covered all subject areas. Now half the program – 30 credits worth – is made up of education-specific courses.
She also added a course called Family Partnerships that teaches students how to work with families and communities to help children grow and develop together.
“I have a strong belief that family and community are a child’s first teachers,” Gohdania explained. “ And we need to recognize different beliefs and practices and know how to bring it all together as teachers.”
Gohdania also wanted to ensure that students would have a better understanding of how to apply what they were learning in the classroom by incorporating into the program more opportunities to gain practical experience outside the classroom.
Whereas before there was only one externship course in the program, Gohdania added a course that allows students to spend more time in the field visiting schools, talking to teachers and working with kids.
“I hope it helps students to be more experienced and more comfortable when they go into the filed,” she said.
“They will have had more practice.”
Of course, Gohdania’s other priority was to ensure that Manor graduates could transfer seamlessly to a four-year institution to earn a bachelor’s degree without losing any time or credits. She based Manor’s program on the state’s standards for a four-year degree, so the first two years at Manor match what the student would be learning in the first two years at a four-year institution.
“Students used to lose credits when transferring,” Gohdania explained. “They would take 60 credits at Manor and only 12 would transfer. It was very frustrating for them.
“We had students who would’ve gone on for their bachelor’s degree if it weren’t for all of the obstacles,” she said. “Now we’ve removed the obstacles.”
In fact, on April 15, 2011, an Early Childhood Education articulation agreement was signed with nine two-year and four-year institutions of higher education. The signing was arranged by the PA Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning and the Early Childhood Education Articulation Committee of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the signing event was hosted by Montgomery County Community College.
The agreement, four years in the making, was signed by Manor, Chestnut Hill College, Eastern University, Neumann University, Northampton County Community College, Delaware County Community College, Community College of Philadelphia, Harcum College and Montgomery County Community College. It ensures, provided certain conditions are met at the two-year school, that a minimum of 54 credits and a maximum of 60 credits will transfer from the two-year to the four-year institutions, enabling students to transfer in as juniors when pursuing their bachelor’s degree.
Gohdania points out, however, that students interested in attaining their associate degree and going straight to work can still do so. Child care centers licensed by the Department of Public Welfare still only require their lead teachers to have an associate degree.
However, child care centers that participate in programs like Headstart and Keystone STARS – which receive funding to provide child care for under privileged parents – will require bachelor’s degrees for lead teachers in the next few years. Those centers also tend to pay better.
“It’s not a bad reason to get your bachelor’s degree,” Gohdania said.
So why should a student come to Manor for his or her associate degree or for the first two years toward a bachelor’s degree?
According to Gohdania, Manor offers a more supportive environment for the many non-traditional students entering the field and, because of its size, Manor is more responsive to the student’s needs. In addition, Manor can be more flexible as to where and when classes are offered.
“Because Manor is smaller, we can help students meet their obligations better and easier than some larger schools,” Gohdania said. “We can be more flexible regarding where students do their field work and if they need a class to graduate we can accommodate that.”
That flexibility extends to where and when classes are offered. “If a child care center has a number of employees who all need the same class, we’ll offer the class at the center, so they can manage work and school better,” Gohdania explained. ”We’ve done that with a bunch of centers that had employees who needed to go back to school.”
Manor’s small campus is easily navigated and the small classes allow instructors to get to know their students on a more personal level.
“I actually see my students; I know them,” Crosby said. “There is no place to hide here. If someone is falling off, that student is going to get a phone call or an email, or a visit from me.
“Our students don’t always hear, ‘you need an appointment,’” she continued.
Crosby also credits the pedigree of the faculty as differentiating Manor.
According to Crosby, it is sometimes the case that, with programs at other schools, the faculty either never worked in the field or they have been removed from it for some time.
“You’ll often see instructors who only took coursework and are now teaching classes themselves,” she explained. “Manor’s program has a number of faculty who are currently child care center directors. Our instructors are doing what they teach.”
Crosby’s next order of business is to attain Early Childhood Associate Degree Accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a process that will include a self-study and an accreditation visit. Crosby expects the process to take up to three years.
“But to date, there are only five other schools in Pennsylvania that have it,” Crosby said. “When we get it, it will demonstrate a renewed commitment to the field and it will show that we are following best practices in educating child care professionals.”