Early Childhood Education Program Ranked Second-best Program in the United States
The Early Childhood Program in the Department of Early Childhood Education/Art Education at Brooklyn College has been ranked second in the Best Colleges for Early Childhood Education out of more than 425 colleges in the country by Teachers.org, based on criteria such as graduation rates, online offerings, and affordability. In addition, Teachers.org notes the program's focus on the arts in the classroom and guiding young children as they discover the world around them. Faculty applied research, curriculum development, and pedagogy are driven by their deep understanding of child development and commitment to high-quality early childhood education and care for all young children and families to help bolster children's school readiness and family engagement.
- Program Flyer (pdf)
As schools of education in the United States have seen declines in enrollment in recent years, Brooklyn College's Early Childhood Master's Program has earned an increase of 62 percent since 2013, from 142 to more than 230 current students. The increase follows the development of innovative graduate initiatives including an Advanced Certification in Early Intervention (EI) and Parenting supported by the NYC Bureau of Early Intervention; a fully online Advanced Certificate EI pathway; an Art, Play and Technology concentration; and Early Childhood Bilingual and Early Childhood Special Education extension options. The ECAE department also includes over 400 undergraduate students who seek either an Early Childhood or an Early Childhood/Early Childhood Special Education Certification as it partners with community colleges to ensure a smooth transition for transfer students.
Committed to preparing students to teach in high-need communities, faculty have developed fieldwork and research partnerships with early childhood programs serving culturally and linguistically diverse families from various settings such as Early Head Start/Head Start, early intervention programs, childcare centers, local schools, family homes, and hospitals as well as the Brooklyn College Early Childhood Center laboratory. The BC ECC laboratory, recently voted to be housed within the college, is being outfitted with the latest technology in order to stream best practices to classes at BC and our clinical and research partners. Building on the diversity of the student body and faculty, the department has developed relationships with programs in Sweden, Greece, China, India, and Saudi Arabia.
