Continuing Education Tips

What is the difference between a degree in early childhood education and elementary education?

I recently talked to a representative from The College of New Jersey, and was told that early childhood education gives you a degree to teach from pre-k through fifth grade, while elementary really only gives a fourth grade to fifth or sixth. Im thinking of teaching third, fourth grade which overlaps and she said it's in my best interest to have a degree in early childhood, is this true?

Public Comments

1. reaata
2. It's not the degree that matters, it's the certification you get afterward.
3. Each state has different certification programs. Depending on what college you go to, your degree should specify what grades you would be certified to teach. For example, technically my degree is called "multidisciplinary studies." at my school this translates to me being certified in pre-k through 4th grade. In other words, what they call the degree doesn't matter. Just the grades its going to represent.
4. It depends on the college really. My college has told me that early-childhood education is really just preschool and maybe kindergarten. I am studying to be a kindergarten teacher and I'm currently doing elementary education. I think it really depends on the college, if you have a particular college in mind I would ask one of the advisers. It may depend also on the state in which the college is in. Each state has different standards to become a teacher and what "qualifies" them to become one. Try looking into the state's teacher qualifications to see what the standards are. I hope this helped!
5. No necessarily. A degree in Early Education is good for Infant to 3rd grade. An Elementary teacher is grades 1-6. Getting a degree in Early Childhood would give you a broad range in which to teach but the grades below Kindergarten don't pay very well and you will have student loans to think about. Also, Early Childhood is the most common and sought out for many teachers because they don't want to teach older kids. This being said the jobs are also harder to come by. I have a degree in Elementary Ed but still couldn't land a job so went for a dual certified program with special education because most schools are requiring teachers to become dual certified since the classes have a growing number of special ed students and you need to know how to differentiate instruction. If you become dually certified you stand a much better chance getting a job. Good luck.