Accreditation News

JOHNSON CITY – (May 8, 2018) East Tennessee State University’s master of arts degree program in early childhood education is the first in the nation to earn accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) at that degree level.  The school’s B.S. in early childhood development was also awarded accreditation.

Both programs are housed with the Department of Early Childhood Education in the Clemmer College of Education. The accreditation was awarded to the teacher and research concentrations within the master’s program and the early care and education concentration in the B.S. program.

“Being that our initial licensure programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels are recognized by NAEYC, we were inspired to engage in a similar self-study process for our early care and education non-licensure programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels,” said Dr. Pam Evanshen, chair of the Department of Early Childhood Education.  “As early childhood educators, we strive for excellence in our field.  We are especially honored to be the first master’s degree program in the country to be accredited by NAEYC.”

To earn and retain accreditation, professional preparation programs must demonstrate alignment to NAEYC’s professional preparation standards; respond to the unique needs of their degree candidates and communities; provide intentional learning experiences for their degree candidates to obtain the knowledge and skills needed to be effective early childhood educators; and continuously assess and reflect on their degree candidates’ performance.

“On behalf of the Commission, I’d like to congratulate the programs who earned and renewed accreditation during the most recent review cycle,” said Crystal Swank, commission chair.  “These programs have spent significant time examining their programs of study, mapping their courses to the standards, creating key assessments and developing assessment plans with the goal of continuous program improvement.”

# # #