New York Must Improve Preparation and Training for New York's Infant-Toddler Educators
New research from the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s (BMCC) Teacher Education Department highlights the need to improve infant-toddler teacher preparation and training to achieve beneficial early childhood outcomes.
Authors Jennifer Gilken, Jennifer Longley, and Jillian Crosby note the shortage of infant-toddler teachers in New York and the barriers to training early educators in the unique skill set required for working with children from birth-to-three. Chief among these are the lack of specialized college curriculum and coursework, faculty expertise, practical experience in building needed skills, and the difficulty transitioning credits from two-year colleges to four-year programs that lead to early childhood teacher certifications (birth to grade 2).
Without better and more specific training in birth-to-three care and education, New York state will struggle to actualize its return on investment in early childhood programming.
“The highest quality pre-K programs cannot mitigate the impacts of a low-quality infant-toddler program,” says Jennifer Longley. “And if we don’t have a high-quality, prepared workforce, we won’t have high-quality programming.”
View the report here
