The T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® National Center has received a two-year extension on funding provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Ivy Tech Community College’s Early Childhood Education program benefits from this extension due to its participation in a T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® 10-state pilot project.
Over the course of the project, each participating state has sought to improve early childhood education pathways for full-time students and for the area’s full-time workforce that is also attending school part-time.
Earlier this month, Ivy Tech Northeast’s Early Childhood Education program chair Rebecca Carothers presented Ivy Tech’s single articulation pathway for Indiana, effective fall 2015, which allowed students who earn their associate degrees in Early Childhood Education to transfer their credits to four-year institutions for their bachelor’s degrees in a related program.
“Kellogg was excited about the progress being made and want to continue their support,” says Carothers, who is Ivy Tech’s representative for the statewide project. “This work supports a movement in Indiana to strengthen early childhood education higher education programs and, in particular, agreements between two-year and four-year programs.”
Much of the groundwork for the state’s single articulation pathway was laid over the last two years by Indiana’s Early Childhood Education Leadership team, made up of program chairs from Ivy Tech, Ball State University, University of Southern Indiana, and St. Mary’s of the Woods. It also included representatives from the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children and T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood®.