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SUNY GCC - Genesee Community College

Early Childhood & Childhood Education

Middle Childhood & Adolescent Education

Teacher Education Concentration Courses

EDUCATION IN GENERAL

Students should start to research four-year colleges during their first semester at GCC. Program requirements vary from college to college, and between types of certification: Early Childhood Education (Birth – Grade 2), Childhood Education (1-6), Middle Childhood Education (5-9), Adolescent Education (7-12), Dual Certification, Art Education (K-12), Music Education (K-12), Physical Education (K-12), and Technology Education (K-12).

All four-year colleges require at least a 2.5 GPA for acceptance into the certification program, but the average at most colleges is 3.0.

Application deadlines vary from college to college but some are as early as mid-October for the following fall semester (SUNY Brockport). Some colleges also require supplemental applications, (SUNY Brockport, SUNY Geneseo) which have deadlines, and are available on their web sites.

Dual certification (childhood and special education) will usually require at least an additional year at the four-year college. Some single certification programs may also require additional semesters, depending upon the particular college and concentration.

Most education programs require a major (36 hours) or a concentration (30 hours). Students should research this early on in their education at GCC and plan to take at least 9-12 credit hours towards it (ie. English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Languages). SUNY colleges require that 18 credit hours of the concentration/major must be upper division courses.

Teacher certification requires the NYSED mandates: SAVE (Violence Prevention) Education, Child Abuse Detection Education. These are included in HED 204 (effective Spring 2003), which is the recommended Physical Education/Health Education course for all four-year colleges.

A Foreign Language requirement exists for all teacher certification areas. The state certification process requires two semesters, or the equivalent, of a foreign language, or two semesters of sign language.