PDC Review - Summer 2006

Articulation: What Does That Mean and Why Should I Care?

On the next page is an article describing an exciting new articulation agreement championed by the North Central Early Childhood Teacher Education Collaborative. But what is an articulation agreement and how might it help you?

Articulation in this context refers to the ability to take credits from one educational institution and use them at another. An Articulation Agreement is an agreement to transfer credit between two or more colleges or universities. Here is an example of how an articulation agreement might affect your professional development:

• You are a toddler teacher in an accredited program preparing for the new accreditation standards ahead of time. You already have an AAS degree in early childhood education and your program won’t require you to have a 4 year degree until 2015, but you believe in being proactive. You decide on a college and then find out that that college will only accept 16 credits worth of the courses you have already taken. It looks like you will need to almost start over. You are very discouraged until you discover that another college has an articulation agreement with the college where you earned your Associate degree. If you go to the second college, almost all of your credits will transfer. Two more classes and you will be a Junior! 

Some colleges have expanded the definition of articulation to include credit for credentials such as a CDA as well as life experience or some kinds of not for credit professional development. For example, some colleges will count a current CDA for 6-9 credits towards an Associate degree.

I hope this information has illustrated why articulation agreements are so important to all of us. Right now more and more places are looking for early childhood educators who have 2 or 4 year degrees in child development or early childhood education. For early childhood professionals looking at the possibility of getting a degree, identifying schools that have articulation agreements or give credit for prior learning is an essential component in the college planning process.

The articulation workgroup of the Minnesota Professional Development Council works to support the creation of articulation agreements, as well as informing students at community and technical colleges of the impacts of articulation on their career paths. If you feel strongly about the importance of articulation and articulation agreements in our early childhood system, consider joining this group and helping with the work. You can contact us at professionaldevelopment@mnaeyc.org.