The SUNY Orange Education Department crafted next year's goals to be in close alignment with the college's Strategic Plan.  While some goals stayed consistent, others this year are new, or revised to better fit our future plans and the changing landscape of higher education. Overall, department faculty take the mission, vision, and goals of the college very seriously, and structure our work to support these ideas. 

Particularly since the pandemic, it has become clear that a significant portion of students continue to struggle in our gateway courses, often showing up to class and participating in group discussions, but having difficulty completing work.  As a response to this phenomenon, we hope to continue to provide regular departmental support targeting students who are taking gateway courses.

During the current year, we have already found some success collaborating with the Human Services department, as they are our partner in a shared learning community.  We plan to continue this work, and to identify common goals and potential events that apply to both programs.

In an attempt to build enrollment in our Early Childhood Development and Care AAS program, we hope to investigate awarding credit for early childhood credentials (such as the CDA).  Students coming to us with this nationally recognized credential are deserving of recognition for their work in early childhood, and we would like to do this via the awarding of credit and potentially excusal from some field observation hours. 

Perhaps one of the most valuable parts of Education students' experiences at the college involves their "real world" classroom experiences both as observers and as active participants in local area childcare and classroom settings.  It remains a goal that we will collaborate with local area early childhood centers and K-12 school districts to explore opportunities for increased collaboration and partnership that will benefit employers, students, and the department.

In recent months, several articulation agreements involving the Early Childhood AAS degree have been formed with four year institutions (Pace, Empire State).  It is critical that students are aware of these opportunities, and so our department hopes to increase awareness and enhance marketing related to these newly formed articulation agreements.