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The Early Care and Education (ECD) program at 91���� has received re-accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), an organization dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8. NAEYC has granted accreditation to 170 associate degree programs in 32 states nationwide since 2006.

“This is a very important accreditation,” said Ashley Hollingsworth, ECD program director. “It gives our students additional options and ensures that all of the Early Childhood programs across the state have the same course competencies.”

Federal Head Start regulations require an associate degree or higher for teachers, and many states include early childhood associate degrees in their Quality Rating and Improvement Systems for child care and preschool programs. NAEYC’s professional standards for early childhood degree programs provide a high measure of quality by which teacher education programs can be evaluated.

To earn and retain accreditation, faculty at these professional preparation programs must demonstrate that they respond to the needs of their stakeholders; provide intentional learning experiences for their students to obtain the knowledge and skills needed to be effective early childhood educators; and continuously assess and reflect on their students’ performance.

“Having this accreditation at the technical college level allows students to take more classes closer to home with the confidence that they’ll be able to move on to a four-year institution,” said Hollingsworth. “We’ve established a quality two-year Early Childhood program that will transition well into the four-year institutions.”

For more information on the ECD program, contact Hollingsworth at (864) 941- 8787 or [email protected].��