Early Childhood Education
Interested in a rewarding career that makes a difference? Great teachers work with families and communities, educating, guiding, and inspiring all of our children to their full potential! At Highline, you’ll find programs that prepare you for a broad range of careers working with children and families, from birth through middle school. With courses offered in the evenings, on the weekend, and online, the program meets the needs of new practitioners and working professionals alike.
Career
Educators work with children, families, and communities in a variety of roles including infant/toddler programs, preschools, Head Start, ECEAPs, and elementary (K-8) schools. Graduates with this degree may also find careers as coaches, trainers, or family support specialists.
Bachelors Degree
Earning a BAS in ECE prepares you for a leadership role in early learning. Graduates pursue careers as center directors and owners, childcare licensors, state trainers, lead teachers at Head Starts and ECEAPs, and family services managers.
Program Map
Department/Program URL:
Education Department – BAS Early Learning Program
GPA Requirement:
All individual classes must be completed with a 2.0 or better to apply for certificates or degrees.
Number of Credits:
181 credits
Degree or Certificate Learning Outcomes:
- Use knowledge of individual children and child development theory to promote learning: Evaluate and make decisions about program practices that build resilience in children, inclusivity, and that push back against systems that may harm children (racism, classism, trauma, poverty, etc); Evaluate the limitations of child development theories and research based primarily on a normative perspective of white, middle-class children.
- Engage families and communities in the education of young children: Value diverse family structures, languages, cultures, and norms articulating a strengths based approach to differences; Independently and collaboratively engage families as partners for insight into their children for curriculum, program development, assessment, and planning for transitions into new programs.
- Observe, document, and assess learning to support development: Use observations for the purpose of curriculum planning, assessment, and/or program improvement; Articulate the developmental, cultural, and linguistic limitations of various assessment tools, when tools may be inappropriate, and advocate for appropriate and ethical use of assessment; Advocate for families, partnering with other early childhood experts as needed, to connect families to culturally and developmentally appropriate resources.
- Use a wide array of developmentally, culturally, and linguistically sustaining approaches, strategies and tools: Demonstrate positive, caring, and supportive relationships with children and families as core to their work; Incorporate culturally sustaining, anti-bias play opportunities as foundational practice; Use research based strategies, tools, and approaches that support the cultural, linguistic, and individual development of all children, including children with special and/or unique behavioral needs.
- Use content knowledge to build a meaningful, inclusive, anti-bias curriculum: Create culturally sustaining, anti-bias curriculum that is inclusive, aligns with early learning standards in a wide range of academic disciplines, builds resilience in children, and pushes back against systems that may harm children (racism, classism, trauma, poverty, etc); Differentiate instruction, opportunities, and approaches based on individual and developmental needs.
- Identify with the profession, center equitable practices as core to their work, and conduct themselves professionally: Uphold ethical standards; Develop the habit of reflective and intentional practice; Advocate for children, families, and the profession.
Top Transfer-To institutions
- Eastern Washington University
- Antioch University
Important Dates or Milestones Specific to Degree/Certificate
N/A
Key Advisors
Associates Degrees
Program Map
Department/Program URL:
GPA Requirement:
All individual classes must be completed with a 2.0 or better to apply to certificates or degrees.
Number of Credits:
90
Degree or Certificate Learning Outcomes:
- Manage classrooms and guide learner behavior by implementing strategies that build social competence in learners, utilizing additional resources and outside agencies when appropriate.
- Demonstrate cultural competence through self-awareness, action for social equity, and knowledge of individual students and their cultural groups and application of best teaching practices.
- Utilize knowledge of child development to construct and implement curriculum that effectively addresses the needs of diverse learners as individuals and in groups. They integrate content knowledge into environments that are healthy, respectful, supportive and challenging for all learners.
- Conduct themselves in accordance with current governing policies, professional standards and ethical codes of the education profession by articulating a philosophy and rationale for decisions using a cyclical process of theory, action and reflection.
- Observe, document and assess learning and teaching to support the success and progress of diverse learners, they use data to reflect on the effectiveness of their own teaching.
- Know about, understand and value different family structures and cultural backgrounds, which they use to establish and maintain reciprocal and authentic family and community partnerships that best support student learning.
Top Transfer-To institutions
- Highline College – BAS in Teaching and Early Learning (Elementary Education Certification)
- HIghline College – BAS in Teaching and Early Learning (Early Childhood Education)
- North Seattle College – BAS in Early Childhood Education
Important Dates or Milestones Specific to Degree/Certificate
N/A
Key Advisors
Certificates
Earning the state ECE Certificate builds your knowledge and skills to promote the healthy development of our youngest learners – children birth to eight years old. It emphasizes relationships with families, culturally sustaining practices, and is a stepping stone to the AAS in early childhood education.
Program Map
Department/Program URL:
GPA Requirement:
All individual classes must be completed with a 2.0 or better to apply to certificates or degrees.
Number of Credits:
47
Degree or Certificate Learning Outcomes:
- Identify strategies that guide learner behavior by implementing strategies that build social competence in learners, utilizing additional resources and outside agencies when appropriate.
- Describe cultural competence through self-awareness, action for social equity, and knowledge of individual students and their cultural groups and application of best teaching practices.
- Utilize knowledge of child development to construct and implement curriculum that effectively addresses the needs of diverse learners as individuals and in groups. Integrate content knowledge into environments that are healthy, respectful, supportive and challenging for all learners.
- Conduct themselves in accordance with current governing policies, professional standards and ethical codes of the education profession by articulating a philosophy and rationale for decisions using a cyclical process of theory, action and reflection.
- Explain how observation and assessment are used to support the success and progress of diverse learners and how data is used to inform teaching practices.
- Know about, understand and value different family structures and cultural backgrounds and be able to describe their own cultural identities and how these identities inform their values and practices.
Top Transfer-To institutions
- People with the state certificate in Early Childhood Education (ECE) continue to the AAS in ECE at Highline College.
Important Dates or Milestones Specific to Degree/Certificate
N/A