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Wendy McCarty, Ed.D.

Associate Professor
Department of Education
Director, Early Childhood Education

Education: University of Texas-El Paso, B.S. 1965; University of Alaska-Anchorage, M.A. 1973; University of Washington-Seattle, M.A. 1976; University of Alaska-Juneau, administrative certificate 1980; Harvard University, Ed.D. 1993

Courses: Reading Skills and Strategies, Assessing Infants and Toddlers with Special Needs; Speech and Language Development; Early Literacy Development; Methods and Materials for Early Childhood; Child, Family, and Community Relationships; Primary Curriculum and Instruction

Research Interests: Pioneer educator Catharine Beecher; oral histories of unmarried women who moved to Alaska to teach

" How can you enter a preschool and not the future in good terms?? asks Professor Wendy McCarty, Ed.D. ?You see humanity at its best. It fills me with optimism every time.?< p>

McCarty grew up on a ranch in New Mexico 150 miles from anywhere but her interest lay with children rather than cattle as far back as she can remember. McCarty spent more than 20 years educating young children and training teachers in Alaska. She taught in cities as large as Anchorage and villages as small as Tok Junction—population 700. For one of her more exotic assignments, McCarty traveled regularly via bush plane to remote Eskimo villages to work with teachers. She slept in the only accommodations available: a Quonset hut heated by an oil stove.

"It was a childhood dream to teach in Alaska," said McCarty. "I intended to stay a year or two and come home but I just fell in love with the people. Those of us who moved there to teach had a shared sense of adventure and a realization that the world is a much bigger place than we ever imagined. I try to instill that idea in my education students. All new learning requires risks. You must take risks."

McCarty taught nearly all preschool and elementary grade levels and some high school. She also taught in special education and gifted programs. She spent her summers as a commercial fishmonger, co-operating a salmon boat.

In 1984, she left Alaska on professional development leave to begin her doctoral studies at Harvard University. After returning to Alaska for another teaching stint, McCarty accepted a position as a research associate at the INREAL Outreach Education Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her responsibilities included creating staff development programs for preschool-through-high school teachers, assessing the Colorado Preschool Program for legislative recommendation and serving on the Governor's Task Force for Teaching Standards.

McCarty was lured to Illinois College in 1993 by the opportunity to establish an early childhood education program.

"The ad had all the right words," McCarty says. "Small, liberal arts college starting an early childhood development program. I wanted to come in on the ground floor."

The program graduated its first students in 1996.

"I remind my students that they should start where the children are," says McCarty, who served as chair of the education department for three years. "They have textbooks and state standards, which are important, but you start with the children and you bridge to those things. Not the other way around."

McCarty speaks frequently on the subject of child development at professional and community events. She is author of several articles and a manual on field-based training for teachers of young children.

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