News Releases

Preschool Educators Have New Options for Graduate-Level Education At USM

July 9, 2007

Most literacy education programs in the country focus almost exclusively on preparing K-12 teachers.  This has created a scarcity of early childhood educators with expertise in literacy development. 

Education experts affiliated with USM’s Muskie School of Public Service and the College of Education and Human Development noted the local effects of this national shortage.  In response, they created a graduate Certificate in Early Language and Literacy. 

The four-course Certificate will provide professional development for experienced teachers and leaders in early childhood education and care, and also will provide some of the coursework required by the Maine Department of Education for the new preschool-teacher certification (birth to 5-year-olds specialist).

The four courses are offered in a four-semester sequence that includes summer study, so students enrolling this fall can complete the Certificate by December 2008. Courses are in late afternoon / early evening and will be held at Child Care Connections in Scarborough, the Resource Development Center for Cumberland County. Fall 2007 course registration is underway. 

For more information about the certificate, contact Christen Stande, 207-780-5055.

USM Literacy Education Professor Margo Wood said about the new certificate, “The graduate certificate program was created in collaboration with the USM Muskie School to incorporate an understanding of policies affecting early childhood care and education, as well as knowledge of the crucial role of early language and literacy experiences in determining later success in learning to read and write.”  

A consultant to USM on the development of the Certificate program curriculum, Boston University Professor Judith Schickedanz says, “There is an important need to create overlap between early childhood education and literacy education to better prepare preschool teachers in the foundations of language acquisition, reading, and writing.”  Schickedanz is the author of “Writing in the Preschool: Orchestrating Meaning and Marks and Much More Than the ABC’s.”

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