Early Childhood Studies Program at CPP Earns National Accreditation

The Early Childhood Studies (ECS) program in the College of Education and Integrative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona has become the first and only four-year degree program in the state to earn national accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  

NAEYC is a non-profit agency representing nearly 60,000 early childhood education teachers, center directors, college educators, families of young children, legislative leaders and advocates. The organization seeks to promote top quality early learning programs from birth to age eight.  

“Reaching this level of accreditation is very exciting because it means that we are doing an excellent job preparing our students for future careers in early childhood,” said Assistant Professor Eden Haywood-Bird, associate chair of the ECS department at CPP. “It also means that the reach of our department’s impact is long and wide on the children who will be cared for and taught by our graduates." 

The NAEYC accreditation process begins with submitting an application and detailing qualifying features of the program. After the application is reviewed by NAEYC staff, a self-study must be conducted in order to examine program quality and address areas of improvement.  The self-study must present evidence of how the program and assessment system aligns itself with NAEYC standards. The program must also include student performance data.

Once the self-study is complete, the program can begin working wih NAEYC to schedule a site visit. NAEYC staff spend three days visiting classes, reviewing materials and interviewing  faculty, students and other program stakeholders. NAEYC staff generate a report and submit it to the Commission on Early Childhood Higher Education Accreditation, which then makes an accreditation decision. 

“I am so proud of what the ECS department has achieved in just the three years of being our own department,” said Haywood-Bird. “It means that all the hard work we have been putting into our teaching and assessments is working!” 

For more information about the ECS program offered at CPP, visit www.cpp.edu/ceis/early-childhood-studies.