Follow the links below to discover more about each institution's early education programs!

  • The Department of Elementary Education offers programs of study, which prepare students to teach and work with young persons in nursery through the sixth grade. Students who successfully complete these programs are granted provisional certification enabling them to teach in New York and many other states.

  • Early Childhood

    • Early Childhood (A.A.S. Degree)
    • Early Childhood (Certificate)

  • SUNY Orange offers a selection of programs for students pursuing varied careers in early childhood, elementary and adolescent education. Emphasis is placed on solid foundational knowledge in liberal arts as well as educational concept, theory, and application. In several courses, local field experiences enhance college classroom learning.

  • Our program in childhood education is guided by the principle that excellent elementary school teachers have a strong background of research-based principles.

    Teaching candidates successfully attain these knowledge bases through a carefully planned sequence of courses taught by veteran teacher-researchers, and with course-embedded faculty supervised fieldwork.

  • The teacher education programs are designed to develop students who are reflective professionals. The programs of study integrate a strong liberal arts foundation with research-validated pedagogical knowledge. As members of a community of learners, students are expected to master the personal and professional knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to teach and assess students within the full range of individual abilities, to evaluate and improve teaching, to develop creative standards-based curricula, and to contribute as effective teachers and leaders in their schools and communities. The role of research and technology and the importance of critical thinking, creative problem solving, and multicultural and global perspectives are emphasized.

  • The teacher preparation programs in the Department of Education reflect the philosophy that schools can be sites of social change where students are given the opportunity to reach their maximum potential as individuals and community members. Vassar students who are preparing to teach work within a strong interdisciplinary framework of professional methods and a balanced course of study in a select field of concentration leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In addition to a degree in an academic discipline, they may also earn initial certification at the childhood and adolescent levels. The Department also offers a variety of courses and the option of earning a correlate in Educational Studies to students who are interested in education related issues, but are not necessarily planning to teach.