Greetings from the Early Childhood Program
at Park University
As past directors of accredited University laboratory schools, we recognize the challenges of recruiting and retaining a well-qualified teaching faculty. It is not simply a matter of meeting accreditation criteria, but it is just as important to challenge faculty to continually reflect, assess and consider multiple perspectives.
We would like to extend an invitation to you and the teaching faculty in your program to help you meet the accreditation criteria whereby each classroom includes at least one teacher with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. We not only wish to help you reach this goal, but we also want to challenge teachers to reflect at higher levels as they extend the thinking of children while engaging families in the life of the school. The faculty at Park University, a not-for-profit University, worked in collaboration with administrators and teachers of accredited programs and head start programs to develop a bachelor’s degree in early childhood teaching focusing on infancy through pre-primary ages. Although the degree does not lead to teacher certification, it was developed as a teaching degree instead of a child psychology degree. In addition to the early childhood teaching young children degree program, we also developed a degree program for administrators who need coursework to help them meet the accreditation criteria for directors. We include not only the required early childhood coursework, but have also included coursework that challenges school administrators to extend their thinking as to what it takes to be an effective leader of an early childhood program.
As these two degree programs were developed, faculty and community advisors also took into consideration our population of students. One of the main things that set Park University apart from other institutions is that we understand our population of students and have a long history in our face to face program of meeting their needs. Both the Dean of our School for Education and the Program Coordinator for our Early Childhood Education at Park have served as directors of accredited University laboratory schools. We understand that our population of students includes individuals who are typically employed as teachers in early childhood settings and are returning to school. We value their experience and encourage them to share their experiences while engaging in dialogue about new ideas. Furthermore, Park has a strong history with distance learning and has been a proven leader in on-line learning. The marriage of experiences between the two programs makes it the strongest program for participants.
As a program dedicated to high quality, the faculty members at Park University hold not only the higher education credentials to teach the courses but we also have experience that helps us understand the teachers’ perspectives and encourage them to apply the information in meaningful ways. Many of our part-time faculty are alumni of our program and are working in the field as teachers, educational coordinators or administrators.
We invite you to read more as you visit our website at http://www.park.edu/education/ece.html . In addition, do not hesitate to contact our Park Student Success Center at pssc@park.edu or 1-(877) 505-1059. We are also happy to answer any questions and can be reached at amy.wolf@park.edu. Thank you for your interest and we look forward to our future learning together.
Sincerely,
Amy Wolf, Ph.D.
School for Education Coordinator for Early Childhood Education
Assistant Professor of Education
Park University
Josephine C. Agnew-Tally, Ed.D.
Dean, School for Education
Park University
^ Back to the Top
---------------------------------
University Resources
|
