Early Childhood Master’s Degree Programs

Find Your Early Childhood Education Specialization

With an early childhood masters degree from Bank Street, you’ll learn how to help children from birth to second grade build a healthy foundation for social, emotional, and cognitive growth that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Choosing Bank Street

At Bank Street, we believe that supporting the curiosity and individuality of young children begins with engaging the same traits in educators like you. In our Early Childhood programs, you’ll:

  • Become well-grounded in child development, focusing on social, emotional, and intellectual growth of babies and children.
  • Gain the specialized skills and dispositions needed to work with young learners while developing an understanding that learning comes in the form of play, social interaction, and sensory experiences, as well as through engagement in literacy, literature, math, science, arts, and social studies.
  • Experience coursework and fieldwork rich in inquiry, with many opportunities, including faculty-led conference groups for you and your peers to reflect on your own experiences and growth as educators.

You’ll also learn to support and advocate for children and families with various racial, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds, as well as for children with a range of developmental variations. Our social justice-oriented practice will guide you toward a deeper understanding of the forces impacting children’s lives in an interdependent and ever-changing world.

If you’re ready to take a transformative step in your career, consider an early childhood education master’s degree from Bank Street. Join our collaborative and supportive educational community today.

What Program Is Right for You?

Bank Street offers a variety of certification and non-certification programs for current and aspiring early childhood professionals. These programs include general education, special education, and cross-disciplinary options, as well as specialized programs for teachers of multilingual learners. Each program centers the developmental-interaction approach, which recognizes that all individuals learn best when they are actively engaged with materials, ideas, and people, and that authentic growth requires diverse and nurturing opportunities for ongoing social, emotional, and cognitive development.

Early childhood sensory learning work

General Education

Gain a progressive, developmental-interaction approach to early childhood education, enabling you to support the growth, development, and learning of the whole child in the context of their community. These degree programs are for teachers and prospective teachers who wish to work with young children, focusing on birth through second grade in a range of general education settings.

An early childhood lesson at Bank Street

Special Education

Become an advocate as you learn about how disability is socially constructed at the levels of family, community, school, and the larger society. These programs are for students who currently hold initial New York State certification in general education at the early childhood level who want to also work with young children (birth through second grade) with developmental and learning variations and with their families.

Teacher with young kids at sensory table

Special and General Education

Help young children thrive in special and general education learning environments by studying the cycle of observation, assessment, and instructional planning. These programs are for teachers and prospective teachers wishing to work with young children (birth through grade 2) of varying developmental ability. With Bank Street’s interdisciplinary and developmental-interaction approaches, you’ll learn to support the growth, development, and learning of the whole child in the context of family and community.

Infant and family development starts with joyful activities

Infant and Family Development and Early Intervention

Learn the specialized skill set needed to support the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs of infants, toddlers, and their families. You’ll study the prenatal and child development of very young children, as well as how to assess and support children in early intervention. This program uses a developmental and contextual lens to prepare you to work in early intervention, child care, parent/child groups, clinical settings, and more.

Teacher reads to young children

Dual Language/Bilingual Education

In these degree programs, you’ll learn to respond to the intellectual, linguistic, and emotional needs of emergent bilingual students. Programs are offered in Spanish or Mandarin.

Lynne Einbender teaching a reading and literacy graduate class

Cross-Age

These programs add flexibility to your career options with preparation to teach students from pre-K through middle and high school.

Graduate students listen during class

Educational Leadership

Refine your supervisory abilities and learn to design programs and lead professional development for pre-K and early childhood centers.

Two graduate students practicing reading a children's book in a classroom

Create Your Own Program

Design an individualized course of study in elementary education that is tailored to your own interests and career goals, including work in advocacy, educational policy, curriculum development, and other areas of the field.

Why Bank Street?

Early Childhood Experts

Bank Street has deep expertise and a rich portfolio of work in the early childhood field, which builds from over a century of contributions that have advanced policy and practice.

Prepared for the Long Run

Bank Street is proud that 87% of its graduates remain in the field of education and 87% feel more confident in their specialty than comparison professionals.

A National Reputation

Our graduates are highly regarded by schools, educational organizations, and other places of learning across the country. A degree from Bank Street is a transformative investment in your values and ambitions, helping you stand out as a forward-thinking educator and leader who is confident, well-prepared, and ready to thrive.

Alumni Voices
I chose Bank Street because I wanted to continue my education in an environment that welcomes the exchange between learners and facilitators, adults and children, theory and practice. Bank Street’s programs emphasize reflection and have presented me with a space where I can share [my experiences] with my colleagues while being challenged to think deeply about the current issues in education and the ways that progressive pedagogy and the developmental-interaction approach can continue to inform my work as an educator.
Jennifer Bourque, GSE ’17