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.
- The Infancy Institute
The Infancy Institute is an annual conference, "Infants, Toddlers, Families: Supporting Their Growth," usually offered in late June. Designed to meet the needs of those who work in varied settings with infants, toddlers, and families, the three-day Infancy Institute provides a high-quality, individualized experience. Past programs have included a visit to an exemplary infant/toddler program, numerous workshops, and all-day seminars on such topics as attachment, infant/toddler development, teen parents, working with toddlers, creating a philosophy, early intervention, staff development, and working with children who are homeless.
- The Bank Street Approach at Work in High Needs Schools
Now in its tenth year, New Beginnings is a highly successful collaboration between Bank Street and the Newark public schools, established to restructure early childhood teaching in the Newark schools, which were taken over by the State of New Jersey in 1995. In addition to a comprehensive restructuring of the city's early childhood classes, the program established local models for effective teaching and research, and provides ongoing professional development for teachers, paraprofessionals, principals, and other administrators.
This year, New Beginnings is providing mentoring, coaching, school-based and cross-school study groups, workshops, and guided school visits. Many of the first Newark teachers to participate in the project are now themselves in leadership roles in the district.
- Strengthening Pre-Kindergarten Services Throughout New York City
The Center for Early Childhood Professionals (ECP), formerly known as the Center for Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK), provides resources, training, and program development to teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, policy makers, advocacy groups, and researchers throughout New York City. The Center also offers specialized professional development workshops and targeted on-site support to early childhood programs.
One of the Center's several programmatic efforts, the Community of Learners Project, begun in 2002, furnishes early childhood educators in Region 1 in the Bronx with professional development services that include in-class mentoring and feedback sessions, credit-bearing course work, advisement, and teacher and parent seminars that cut across various service modalities: Head Start, daycare, special education, family daycare.
The Center's Early Childhood Mentoring Program also offers professional development for novice pre-K teachers. Finally the Center for ECP is a major partner in Quality New York, an early childhood initiative of United Way Success by Six, which is aimed at securing NAEYC accreditation for local early childhood programs.
- Linking Bank Street Products to Staff Development in Camden, NJ
The Camden School District adopted the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Pre-K Math and Pre-K Reading Programs, which the publisher produced in collaboration with Bank Street's Publications & Media Group (P&MG). The School District asked Bank Street for help in implementing these programs, and a P&MG staff member, Kathleen Hayes, and members of the Graduate School faculty are providing on-site staff development workshops to Pre-K staff developers and teachers.
- Better-Prepared Early Childhood Teachers and Caregivers
Started in 1995, the Center for Early Care and Education offers the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. Such a credential is increasingly required for staff working in federal, corporate, and private infant/toddler and preschool childcare programs. The Center works with parents and assistant teachers, sometimes in their own educational settings, to help them qualify for the CDA. Some participants choose to earn ten college credits, which are granted by Bank Street's partner, LaGuardia Community College. Thus, the CDA program not only promotes quality in childcare services, but also helps the students move up the career ladder.
- Bank Street and Head Start: Partners from the Beginning
Bank Street was a major participant in the development and implementation of the federal Head Start program in the 1960's. That collaboration continues today at the Bank Street Head Start program, which is located in the Genesis-Robert F. Kennedy apartments on East Thirteenth Street, and serves sixty children. The Administrative Director and all four head teachers are Bank Street graduates, and two of the eight assistants are currently enrolled in Bank Street degree programs. Bank Street's Family Center, which serves children from infants to age four on-site at the College, provides the Head Start program with weekly support and supervision and special education services, and shares staff development days.
- Helping Early Childhood Mentor Teachers in Albuquerque
In a collaboration between Bank Street and the Albuquerque Public Schools, initiated in 2003 and concluded in 2005, Continuing Education staff developers offered workshops for early childhood mentor teachers, provided in-classroom support for those mentor teachers, and consulted with Albuquerque early childhood administrators.
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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.
