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Connecticut Common Standard
for Assessing Early Childhood Education Credits and Degrees (rev 12-15)
The Office of Early Childhood recognizes the 2010 "Common Standard" agreement between the Connecticut departments of Education, Social Services, Higher Education, and Public Health to assess the early childhood education content in credits and degrees. This revised version is updated to reflect the change in state departments and divisions. The Common Standard is used to determine all credits and degrees including but not limited to their application toward the Connecticut career ladder, licensing Head Teacher certificate, the Early Childhood Teacher Credential (ECTC), and technical assistance providers.
Definition of Common Standard for Assessing Early Childhood Education Credits and Degrees
Adopted October 2009 and effective as of January 1, 2010:
Courses that include the study of the education or development of children less than five years of age will be assessed as meeting the content requirement for early childhood education.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Who will implement the Common Standard?
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Answer: Effective January 1, 2010, the Connecticut Early Childhood Professional Registry will be the sole determiner of whether coursework and degrees meet the Common Standard, and will report to state agencies and the public using the Common Standard.
The Office of Early Childhood's licensing division will apply the Common Standard to head teacher and technical assistance provider approvals.
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Does the Common Standard accept courses that cover a wider age span?
Answer: Yes. Life span development courses would be included as long as some of the course content is relevant to children under the age of five. However, courses only in adolescent development would not be included.
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Does the Common Standard require that a course include study of the entire age range from birth to five?
Answer: No. A course that is specifically about infants or solely about 3- and 4-year-old children will be included.
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Can courses be about one or more areas of child development?
Answer: Yes. Courses can be general or specific and can cover one or more areas of child development. For example, courses in language, social emotional or cognitive development of young children or the play behaviors of young children would be included.
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Can courses about teaching children, either in general or specifically, in a subject area be included?
Answer: Yes. Courses about teaching literacy, science, math or social studies or other subjects that include teaching children under the age of five would be included. Courses that are solely about teaching children of kindergarten age or older would not be included.
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6. |
Does the Common Standard include courses on how to work with families or the community?
Answer: Yes. As long as it is clear that the content is relevant to working with children under the age of five years, those courses would be included.
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Does the Common Standard include courses dealing with the administration of an early childhood program?
Answer: Yes. As long as it is clear that the content is relevant to supervising staff persons who work with children under the age of five years they would be included.
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8. |
Does the Common Standard specify particular courses that have to be included?
Answer: No. There are no distribution requirements specifying required courses, however, the OEC strongly recommends that the individual have a solid ECE foundation by distributing courses as follows:
3-credits in child development and learning which includes study of children under the age of 5 years
3-credits in teaching pedagogy which includes study of children under the age of 5 years
(examples: introduction to early childhood education; methods for teaching young children; methods for teaching infants and toddlers)
6-credits in any of the content areas identified by early childhood professional organization, the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC), listed below:
1) Child development and learning
2) Family and community relationships
3) Observing, documenting, and assessing young children
4) Teaching and learning (pedagogy)
5) Becoming an early childhood professional
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