NCC Earns NAEYC Accreditation
Nash Community College is proud to announce that the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has granted accreditation to Nash Community College’s Early Childhood Education associate degree program. The NAEYC Commission on Early Childhood Associate Degree Accreditation awards this status to programs that have demonstrated evidence of meeting its Standards for Professional Preparation for Early Childhood teachers. NAEYC Standards provide a high measure of quality by which early childhood teacher programs can be evaluated.
To earn accreditation, NCC’s Early Childhood Education program engaged in a rigorous process of self-study to demonstrate that the program responds to the needs of their stakeholders and provides intentional learning experiences that are aligned with NAEYC Standards, enabling students to obtain knowledge and skills needed to be effective early childhood educators. Faculty must assess student performance on each of the Standards and the twenty-two key elements. Upon acceptance of the self-study, programs then move to Candidacy status. As a final step, a site visit is scheduled through which NAEYC reviewers gather further information and evidence for the final accreditation decision by the Commission. Just recently, the College received confirmation that each of these requirements was successfully met for program accreditation. “As graduates of an accredited program, NCC students can be certain they have had rich experiences to learn and to apply their knowledge and understanding based on the highest standards of the early childhood field,” Director of Early Childhood Education Katherine Wilder said. “This solid foundation places them in high demand by employers.”
The Early Childhood Education facility adjacent to the Betsy B. Currin Child Development Center opened in 2012, dramatically increasing instructional extension opportunities for program faculty and students. “When the Early Childhood Education program relocated, faculty members began with the clear intention that the depth and richness of the field of early education, and most importantly, ‘what tomorrow’s teachers should know and be able to do’ according to NAEYC, would be visible and evident to every person who entered the building,” Wilder said. “In doing so, the mission of the ECE program would also be visible, as would the collective efforts of students and faculty toward its realization.” The addition provides an opportunity for faculty and students to work closely in a real-world lab setting as students acquire valuable skills through internships, observation and interaction with children and qualified mentor teachers in the Child Development Center.
Consistent with Nash Community College’s mission, the Early Childhood Education program is committed to providing graduates with knowledge and expertise required to enter a challenging career in early childhood education or to transfer successfully to complete a four-year degree in Early Childhood Education.
