Good Morning,
The Commission that oversees NAEYC's higher education accreditation system knows that this has been a very challenging semester for higher education programs and that these challenges will continue into the fall. Given that the lack of access to field experiences is out of programs' control, the Commission wants to be as flexible as possible with programs. Your message comes at an opportune time as we are planning to send a message to programs in the accreditation system later this week. I will post that here once it goes out to the accreditation community.
In June, NAEYC will release a brief summarizing findings from its survey about the impact of COVID-19 on ece higher education programs. The survey asked faculty about their experiences transitioning to solely online teaching, the impact on the ability for programs to offer field experiences and key assessments, and the impact on students and faculty.
ACCESS has been doing a great job of curating resources faculty have been using this spring to support the transition to online teaching. I encourage you to take a look at the "Forums" section of the website where they have a running annotated list of videos and other resources faculty are using to supplement field experiences.
SCRIPT-NC is another great source that curates free curricular resources (including videos) for professional preparation programs.
We are deeply appreciative of all that faculty are doing to support their students during this time!
Sincerely,
Mary Harrill
Senior Director, Higher Education Accreditation, NAEYC
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Mary Harrill
National Association for the Education of Young Children
Kensington MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-26-2020 06:38 PM
From: Julia Kelly
Subject: Field Hours In the Fall Higher Education Program
Hello Joanna,
Thank you for your prompt reply to my post. I believe that planning courses for the fall semester must be done in mind with field hours not being an option.
Yes, in my annual accreditation report due in September I will be addressing the issues related to our program and the COVID-19 pandemic. I am hoping to see more resources for NAEYC in how they would guide us in this process.
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Julia Kelly
Edmond OK
Original Message:
Sent: 05-26-2020 01:06 PM
From: Joanna Grymes
Subject: Field Hours In the Fall Higher Education Program
We are turning to online video for much of our observation hours for summer. At the teacher licensure level, our (Arkansas) state licensure office allowed a lot of flexibility for spring internships. We do not know what will happen for fall -- and it may be like this spring -- we won't know until we are half -way through it. I am planning fall classes for students to not be allowed in to observe. I think a related question might be, how will NAEYC and other accrediting bodies adjust to the realities?
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Joanna Grymes
Arkansas State University
State Univ AR
Original Message:
Sent: 05-25-2020 11:32 AM
From: Julia Kelly
Subject: Field Hours In the Fall Higher Education Program
I am a coordinator for my college's Early Childhood program. Our adult students must complete 32 hours of observation at a child care center or family child care home. My concerns are that child care centers and FCCH will either not take or extremely limit the amount of outside people allowed in the facility. Another concern is that of the students who may themselves be vulnerable or have those they live with and cannot complete the field hours.
So, my question is for others in higher education programs with field hours, how are you navigating and preparing for field hour alternatives? And for those who operate child care centers and FCCH, are you considering having interns or volunteers this fall?
Your feedback is appreciated!
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Julia Kelly
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