 |
Jun 3, 2006
|
||
 |
|||
 |
|||
|
Jun 3, 2006
|
||
|
|||
|
|||
| Online Phonebook | Sandhills Guide | Business News | National News |
 |
|
|
BY Caroline Kornegay: Staff Writer Sandhills Community College's Early Childhood Education program is one of the first in the nation to receive a brand-new accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
The college will be able to offer a two-year degree with the national organization's seal of approval. The accreditation is so new that some of the details are still being worked out. "We didn't have to change the curriculum," said Ronda Hawkins, coordinator of the program. "North Carolina is head and shoulders above the other states." The college's Early Childhood Education program is designed to produce graduates able to work in day-cares, preschools, public and private schools. The program is available as a two-year associate degree program, which will be certified for next year's graduates. There is also a one-year certificate program for child care providers and a one-year certificate program in early childhood administration. Hawkins and Peggy Johnson, an instructor with the program, and the Early Childhood program staff worked for almost two years to put together all the information needed for the NAEYC's application. Hawkins will be in San Antonio, Texas, for the national training convention when the accreditation awards will be announced to the members. Approximately 150 students are in the program, Hawkins said. "We are training them to be working," she said. The team of educators traveled to Boone for a week in 2004 to hammer out all information necessary to fill the thick binder of application materials. More than 35 years of experience from the program went into the report, Hawkins said. "Ronda was the spearhead when we went to Boone," Johnson said. "We worked all day and all night." Growth centered around Fort Bragg's reassignment of officers from the Base Reassignment and Closure Commission could bring more young children to the Sandhills. With more children, there will be a larger demand for child-care programs and teachers who could be drawn by the national credit. Many of the students are the wives of military officers who will come with the BRAC reassignment, Johnson said. "A lot of our students are military," she said. "We're liable to get military families." One of the strengths of the program is that it has practical, hands-on training for teachers. The official report from the NAEYC Commission will come in early July, according to the association. The report will describe the program's strengths, areas for improvement, and any changes to make. NAEYC awarded accreditation to five programs, three of which are in North Carolina, one in South Carolina and one in Maryland. Davidson County Community College in Lexington, Mitchell Community College in Statesville, and Sandhills will be the first three locations in the state. "We have innovations, like Head Start, More at Four, that the other states look to us for," Johnson said. Hawkins is trying to coordinate the actions of a number of different people to get the accreditation in place for the fall. "Degree by degree, we're raising the quality of child care in the county," Hawkins said. "I'm very excited about our future."
Caroline Kornegay can be reached at 693-2484 or by e-mail at ckornegay@thepilot.com. |
|
|
||
|
|
