Letters of Recommendation Requirement

A candidate must provide two official letters of recommendation. Recommendations can come from instructors, supervisors or members of the community.  Family members cannot provide letters. It is recommended that one letter is provided by an instructor and the second letter is provided by the educator who oversaw the field experience work. However, a candidate can choose whomever they wish. Please share this information with your recommender. Letters that do not address all the bullet points will be deemed unacceptable.

The recommender should speak to the candidate’s readiness and qualifications for entering a teaching preparation program. It must address all the following:

• Discussion of the candidate’s

• Passion for playing, exploring, and learning with young children
• Personal and/or professional abilities/qualities based on their experiences that inform their identity, especially related to teaching young children.
• Ability to meet the needs of all children and recognition of the wide spectrum of developmental needs of young children and their adults
• Honoring of communities’ funds of knowledge in their work with young children (Moll et al., 1992)--this includes the centering of cultural and linguistic knowledge of every child and their adults
• Capacity for theoretical and practical analytic work
• Dedication to social justice and equity
• Dependability, reliability, critical consciousness, trustworthiness 
• Commitment to lifelong learning

Letters of recommendation MUST be submitted directly by the recommender by uploading them to the Cal State Apply Application.