Career Ladder Information

The Career Ladder is a display of steps in a person's early childhood professional development advancement from entry level through degree programs. It is based on research that shows the value of specialty professional development in early childhood education. You may enter at any level of the career ladder as long as you meet the requirements for that particular step.

All coursework must be from a regionally accredited higher education institution.

The Connecticut Common Standard for Assessing Early Childhood Degrees and Credits and the Connecticut Common Standard for Assessing School-Age Degrees and Credits will be used to assess all degrees and credits.

• Early Childhood Education, Child Studies, Child Development, Human Development and Family Relations, Early Childhood Special Education.

• Elementary Education, Special Education, Youth Studies, Recreation, Family Social Sciences

Foreign higher education degrees and credits are recognized if evaluated course-by-course by an evaluation service approved by the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (www.naces.org). The evaluation must specify that the credits and/or degree are the equivalent of credits and/or degrees from a regionally accredited U.S. institution of higher learning. If the evaluation service is not a member of NACES, or if the equivalency is not to a regionally accredited U.S. institution of higher learning, the credits and/or degree will not be counted toward ladder level.