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The Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) at MCC-Penn Valley is recognized as a leader in providing comprehensive education for aspiring early childhood and youth development professionals.
ECED offers college credit courses at the MCC-Penn Valley campus delivered in flexible ways to accommodate professionals entering or already working in the field.
Courses are offered in 8, 12 and 16 sessions, on ground, hybrid and online.
This program, which leads to either an Associate in Applied Science degree or a certificate, prepares students for jobs in child care. Requirements for the degree and certificate are listed below.
To be admitted to the program, students must complete the following application process:
Every student in the ECED program should be aware that the Missouri State Board of Education may refuse to issue or renew, or may suspend or revoke a certificate of license to teach if an individual has pleaded or been found guilty of a felony or crime involving moral turpitude whether or not sentence is imposed; upon evidence that the certificate was obtained by fraud, deception, misrepresentation or bribery; upon evidence of incompetence, immorality or neglect of duty; or if the certificate holder is subject to discipline in another state.
Do you have an active CDA or are you in the process of attaining one in the Early Childhood Education field? If so, you can earn your ECED certificate or degree from MCC more quickly than you think.
The Early Childhood Education and Development program offers individuals with a current CDA nine credit hours towards our certificate and A.A.S degree.
In order to receive the nine credit hours, students must take an additional nine from MCC's Early Childhood Education and Development course offerings. Once complete, credit for ECED 101, 110, and 132 will be granted and added to your transcript. See cdacouncil.org for instructions on how to obtain this credential
Visit the MoSCORES website for information on MCC's programs, including length, credit hours, and wage and employment data. Search Metropolitan Community College. Note: The historical data listed is informational and can vary based on the number of credit hours students earn, local wage conditions and other factors.
Early childhood education focuses on nurturing and teaching children birth through eight years old. ECE professionals create stimulating environments and learning opportunities to assist in the development of the whole child.
Students will gain the teaching tools necessary to help young children build an educational foundation that they will take with them for the rest of their lives.
Research shows that the first five-years of a child's life is critical to their long-term development. As an early childhood educator, you can be involved in the most significant periods of cognitive, physical and social and emotional development.
Your will always be needed and the work you do can make a huge impact on the lives of children.
Early childhood educators can work in many different settings. Depending on educational attainment one can be:
Careers can be found in the K-12 public school system, private centers, private schools, after-school programs and home-based care.
The CDA is nine credit hours, the Certificate in Early Childhood Education is 21 credit hours, the Certificate in Youth Development is 24 credit hours.
The A.A.S in Early Childhood is between 62 and 66 credit hours. The length of time to complete each depends on whether or not a student goes full-time or part-time.
The A.A.S. is designed to be completed in two years if a student attends full-time.
The CDA stacks into the certificate in early childhood and ultimately the A.A.S. in Early Childhood.
Courses are offered online, face-to-face and as a hybrid (a combination of face-to-face and hybrid). Courses are offered in the evenings and on weekends to accommodate our working student population.
Our program has classes that begin during the traditional 16-week semester, late start courses that are offered as 12-week classes and as 8-week courses.
We have 8-week courses that begin at the start of the traditional semester and end at mid-term and then a 2nd 8-week course offering that begins at mid-term and continues until the end of the traditional semester.
This allows students to take more classes during semester and meet their goals sooner.
A CDA (Child Development Associates) is a nationally recognized certificate awarded by the Council for Professional Recognition.
The CDA consists of multiple components including 480 hours teaching children in a classroom at the age you want to become certified in, an observation, the CDA exam, a portfolio review and an application fee.
The CDA can be obtained either by taking 120 clock hours of documented professional development or nine hours of college credit. MCC offers three courses that equal nine credit hours towards the CDA.
These courses are ECED 101-Foundations of Early Childhood, ECED 110-Child Health, Safety and Nutrition, and ECED 132-Learning Environments.
For more information on the CDA visit The Council for Professional Recognition at CDACouncil.org and for information on scholarships to help pay for the CDA visit frontlineeducation.com.
Apply to MCC today!