Quick answer: Early childhood education has the clearest credential ladder in education: state training hours, then the CDA, then the associate, then the bachelor’s with a state teaching license. 953 colleges awarded the degree in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024), and the pay difference between the child care tier and the licensed classroom is the whole argument for climbing. The ladder and the numbers are below.
Early childhood education covers teaching and care from birth through the early elementary grades. The degree exists at every rung of a genuine ladder. The associate is the lead-teacher credential in child care and Head Start settings and the standard requirement in state quality-rating systems. The bachelor’s - paired with a state teaching license - is the public school classroom credential for pre-K and kindergarten.
What the degree is not: a license by itself. Public school teaching runs through your state’s educator licensure board - approved program, supervised student teaching, background clearance and examinations. Child care settings run through a different authority, the state early learning agency, with its own training-hour and ratio rules. The degree satisfies requirements inside both systems; it replaces neither.
This page covers the early childhood credential specifically (CIP 13.1210). The teaching degree page covers K-12 licensure paths more broadly, including career-changer routes.
Most programs cover child development from birth through age eight, early literacy and language acquisition, curriculum design for play-based and pre-academic classrooms, observation and assessment, working with families, and teaching children with developmental differences. Credible programs typically include supervised hours in a real classroom, scaling from observation up to full student teaching at the bachelor’s level.
Before you request information anywhere, know which rung you are buying - CDA support, the associate, or a license-track bachelor’s - and compare early childhood programs enrolling now:
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by BOC Score with the highest at the top. 10 of them carry a score.
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal about the institution rather than about this subject. Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Two systems share this field. Child care and preschool run through state early learning agencies: training hours, the CDA credential, and degree requirements that step up with each quality-rating tier - the associate is where lead-teacher eligibility typically begins. Public school classrooms run through the state educator licensure board: an approved bachelor’s program, student teaching, examinations and background clearance.
The move worth planning around is articulation. CDA-to-associate credit and associate-to-bachelor’s transfer agreements are standard here, which makes this one of the few fields where the credential you earned at 19 keeps paying into the degree you finish at 30. NAEYC-accredited programs (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) and those housed in CAEP-accredited education schools signal that the articulation and student-teaching machinery actually works - ask for completion and placement figures either way.
Most people in this degree are already in a classroom, which is why 785 of 953 awarding institutions report fully online programs at this level (IPEDS 2024). Coursework moves online; the supervised hours do not, and programs routinely place them in the student’s own workplace - a licensed center where you already teach can host your practicum, which some states formalize in apprenticeship-style pathways.
Ask three questions of any program: how much credit a current CDA converts to, whether your workplace can host supervised hours, and which state licenses the bachelor’s track actually leads to. Get all three answers in writing.
| Measure | Preschool Teachers | Kindergarten Teachers |
|---|---|---|
| National median pay | $38,140/yr | $62,680/yr |
| Employment | 478,780 | 108,870 |
| Projected growth, 2024-34 | +4.1% | -1.6% |
| Openings per year | 65,500 | 12,800 |
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
The gap between the columns is the economics of this field in one row: $38,140 median in preschool settings against $62,680 in licensed kindergarten classrooms, with the kindergarten 90th percentile above $101,830 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Public school positions carry the license requirement, the salary schedule, and the benefits package; the child care tier carries the openings - 65,500 a year against 12,800. The degree ladder is how people move from the second column’s availability to the first column’s pay.
At the associate level, the return is concrete: lead-teacher eligibility and quality-rating tiers convert directly to pay bumps in most states’ systems. The bachelor’s-plus-license step is the larger jump - roughly the difference between the two medians above - but it costs student teaching, which usually means a semester of reduced income. Plan that semester before you start, not when you reach it. Individual outcomes may vary.
Early childhood employment tracks families, which makes it the most evenly distributed field on this site - districts, Head Start grantees and licensed centers hire in every county. What differs by state is the pay machinery: quality-rating systems that attach wage supplements to credentials, public pre-K programs that put licensed teachers on district salary schedules, and child care subsidy rates that set what centers can pay. Two states can pay the same credential very differently, which is exactly what the state pages below are for.
It splits sharply by setting. Preschool teachers earn a national median of $38,140 across 478,780 jobs. Kindergarten teachers - public school positions requiring a bachelor's and a state license - earn a median of $62,680 across 108,870 jobs, with the top 10 percent above $101,830 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The degree and the license are what move you between those columns.
Not to start. Child care settings hire with a high school diploma plus state training hours, and the CDA credential is the industry's standard first rung. The associate degree is where lead-teacher and Head Start requirements begin, and the bachelor's plus a state teaching license is required for public school classrooms. Confirm the exact tier with your state's early learning agency, because ratios and qualifications differ by state.
Yes. 785 of the 953 institutions awarding this degree report offering programs entirely by distance education at this level (IPEDS 2024). The coursework moves online; the supervised classroom hours - practicum and student teaching - are in person at a licensed program or school near you.
Age band and license. Early childhood typically covers birth through around age eight - child care, preschool, pre-K and the early elementary grades - while elementary education covers the K-6 classroom. This page covers CIP 13.1210, the early childhood credential; states issue separate or overlapping licenses for each band, so check which license the program actually leads to.
The preschool tier is growing - 4.1 percent projected from 2024 to 2034, with about 65,500 openings a year, among the largest totals in education. Kindergarten positions are projected to decline 1.6 percent with about 12,800 annual openings, tracking school enrollment (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Individual outcomes may vary.
Often, yes. Many associate programs grant credit for a current CDA credential, and articulation from associate to bachelor's programs is standard in this field. That makes the CDA-to-associate-to-bachelor's ladder one of the most credit-friendly paths on this site - but the amount granted varies by program, so request a written transfer credit evaluation before enrolling.
Best Online Early Childhood Education Degrees in 2026 - the top schools ranked by BOC Score
Teaching degrees and K-12 licensure - the wider classroom-licensure picture
School counseling degrees - the master’s-level student-services path
Education degree paths - the family hub this degree sits in
Training and development degrees - the adult-education branch
CTE teacher career guide - the classroom career path for people from the trades
Trade Careers That Require a 4-Year Degree - every degree-gated career on this site
State pay, licensing and metro-level data for this degree. Wage and employment figures on every state page come from BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Alabama * Arizona * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Connecticut * Delaware * District of Columbia * Florida * Georgia * Hawaii * Idaho * Illinois * Indiana * Iowa * Kansas * Kentucky * Louisiana * Maine * Maryland * Massachusetts * Michigan * Minnesota * Mississippi * Missouri * Montana * Nebraska * Nevada * New Hampshire * New Jersey * New Mexico * New York * North Carolina * North Dakota * Ohio * Oklahoma * Oregon * Pennsylvania * Rhode Island * South Carolina * South Dakota * Tennessee * Texas * Utah * Vermont * Virginia * Washington * West Virginia * Wisconsin * Wyoming
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
