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NAEYC Higher Education Accreditation System Standards
NAEYC's higher education accreditation system accredits early childhood degree programs preparing individuals for beginning career roles as early childhood educators. As such, the system uses the initial standards from NAEYC's 2010 Standards for Initial and Advanced Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs. These standards describe what early childhood professionals are expected to know and do, defining essential learning outcomes for professional preparation programs and presenting a shared vision of excellence. The Commission on the Accreditation of Early Childhood Higher Education Programs uses these standards as the basis for the accreditation of associate, baccalaureate and initial-license master's degree programs. The Commission does not accredit early childhood degree programs preparing individuals for advanced practitioner roles at this time.
For a quick overview of these standards, see this summary.
Download the Full Standards Document
The 2010 NAEYC Standards for Initial and Advanced Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs are available as a PDF document. Programs pursuing higher education accreditation should use the initial standards (found on p.29-43) to fully inform their accreditation work. In addition, programs may find the rubrics describing program performance expectations in relation to the standards (p.72-100) helpful in preparing their accreditation materials.