was founded in 1916 as the Bureau of Educational Experiments. Our founder, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, convinced that public schools were not serving children well, set out, with a group of like-minded colleagues, to discover the environments in which children grow and learn to their full potential, and to educate teachers and others to create these environments. From those small beginnings as an experimental nursery school staffed by teachers, psychologists, and researchers, Bank Street grew over the years, adding programs and projects, more students, both adults and children, creating materials for and about children in many media, and influencing the design and implementation of such national educational programs as Head Start and Follow Through.
Bank Street College supports the entire spectrum of education, supporting Lucy Sprague Mitchell's mission to "keep one ever a learner." To learn more about our offerings in a specific area, click on any stage of the continuum.
- Staying in School, Headed for College
Liberty LEADS, The Center for Leadership and College Prep brings together two Bank Street initiatives that have well-established records of efficacy over time. These initiatives originally served two constituencies through separate but interconnected programs. The first, the Liberty Partnerships Program (LPP), began seventeen years ago and has had tremendous success working with youth at risk of dropping out of high school. LPP's accomplishments are readily seen by comparing Board of Education citywide data with LPP data. The average on-time graduation rate citywide is 54%. By contrast, an average of 90% of LPP youth complete high school on time˜a figure that is all the more stunning considering that over three-quarters of the students are originally referred to LPP on the basis of poor academic performance and attend high schools where graduation rates can be below 50%. Furthermore, 90% of LPP students actually apply to and are accepted to a college, whereas 63% of students citywide report only that they plan to attend college after graduation.
The second program under the Center umbrella is known as I-LEAD, Institute for Leadership, Excellence and Academic Development. This program serves promising high-achieving students at under-resourced parochial schools and prepares them to become competitive applicants to selective colleges and universities. I-LEAD is now accepting students from the public schools as well as independent schools. The program began five years ago and was based on Liberty's model of youth development. It too has been very successful. Every year, 100% of I-LEAD's graduating seniors are admitted to selective and competitive four-year colleges; about 18% of the students in each class are accepted at Ivy League schools. On the other hand, the rate of admission to selective schools for a comparison group of students is only 34%.
- Help for Middle Schools
The Center for Middle Schools Restructuring (CMSR), which devised a model for middle schools using the Bank Street approach that was adopted by the New York City Board of Education for its Middle Schools Initiative, is now the Center for Middle School Practices (CMSP). CMSP coordinates many diverse programs and activities aimed at middle school teachers and students, such as the first annual Middle School Conference, held in November 2004. The Conference offered workshops on aspects of middle school practice, interactive exercises, films, a panel of students who reflected on their own middle school experiences, and resource guides and tips to stimulate new ideas and strategies for curricula with a special focus on the arts.
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Graduate School, which offers intensive, individualized master's degree programs every year to 1,000 aspiring teachers and school leaders, conducts action-oriented research designed to improve teaching and learning, and works with public schools in New York City and in other cities.
a School for Children and Family Center, which, together, offer unparalleled care and education to nearly 500 children.
a Division of Continuing Education, which conducts much of the College's extensive outreach work in a wide variety of schools and communities.
a Publications and Media Group, which creates innovative materials for and about children in many forms, including books, CD-ROMs, television, and websites.
