The Early Childhood Teacher Education program at Illinois State will prepare you for a type 04 certification for teaching programs serving children birth to age 8 (grade 3). The program is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and is a nationally recognized model of standards-based and performance-based teacher education. Throughout your course work, you will gain the professional knowledge, skills, and experiences needed to become a highly effective parent-infant educator, special education preschool educator, public school pre-kindergarten, child care, or kindergarten through third grade teacher.

Program features

Program objectives are the national standards for early childhood education designed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) which reflects the needs of children based on current research.
Diversity training is included in every course in the program, so you move well beyond awareness to learn how to actually apply this critical knowledge base.
Technology skills are embedded directly into our methods courses, so you gain immediate practice using appropriate technology in your teaching.
Multiple clinical experiences throughout the program prepare you to assume your professional responsibilities. Prior to student teaching, early childhood education candidates will spend more than 155 hours in clinical experiences in Pre-K-3 classrooms as a part of their program, including teacher institutes and parent-teacher conferences.
A variety of student teaching options are available. You may choose an on-campus program with its varied clinical placement settings and its one-semester student teaching in a multitude of Illinois school districts as well as in Texas and in Great Britain. Alternatively, you can opt to spend your entire final year at one of Illinois State University's Professional Development Schools.
Transfer students can conveniently adjust their plan of study to fit the two year early childhood program on campus, resulting in a bachelor's degree, if they work closely with their community college and Illinois State advisors.
School districts are very satisfied with our students as student teachers and early career teachers. School districts turn to Illinois State early childhood education students to fill their hiring needs in the state and also in other states.

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