Fresno State is one of two California universities cleared to offer a new PK-3 early childhood teaching credential, the California State University announced Tuesday.

Fresno State’s credential program will begin in summer 2025, while San Jose State’s program will begin this fall, the CSU said.

Seventeen more CSU campuses as well as CalStateTEACH — the CSU’s fully online program — are gearing up similar credential programs.

It comes in response to the state’s need for more teachers trained in “developmentally appropriate practices” to teach young children in multilingual and multicultural settings. The state is phasing in universal transitional kindergarten, which has sparked a need for 12,000 to 15,000 new teachers by the 2025-26 school year.

The teaching credential coursework is specific to young children and how they learn.

“As home to the largest teacher preparation program in California and among the largest in the nation, the CSU is proud to once again lead the way in producing teachers that will change the trajectory of our children’s lives and elevate the early childhood education workforce,” Shireen Pavri, assistant vice chancellor at the CSU Chancellor’s Office, said in a news release.

“We are thrilled about the potential of this new PK-3 early childhood education credential to provide a strong and equitable early learning foundation for our youngest and most diverse learners in the state.”

Up to now the only institutions in California with approval from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to provide PK-3 early childhood teaching credentials were the San Diego County and Riverside County offices of education, the CSU said.

Credential Program ‘Significant’ for Fresno Unified

Fresno Unified officials said the credential program is expected to have a “significant” impact on the district.

“By bringing increased awareness and validation to the importance of specialized courses focusing on child development, we expect a substantial shift in current practices for grades K-3,” the district’s Early Learning department said. “This credential will highlight the crucial nature of early learning and encourage practices that are developmentally appropriate, aligning with the fact that 90% of a child’s brain development occurs before age 5.”

And having more teachers who are specifically trained to work with younger students could boost enrollments in the district’s preschool and transitional kindergarten classes as parents become more aware of the expanded teacher training, the department said.

Fresno Unified has long collaborated with Fresno State through the Fresno Teacher Residency Program, which in recent years included multiple subject teachers with an emphasis on transitional kindergarten, the district’s Teacher Development department said.

The district has 13 credentialed TK teachers through the program and expects to prepare 17 more for the 2024-25 school year, the department said.