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.
- Developing Leadership to Help Effect Positive Educational Change
Our work in leadership was expanded in the fall of 2003, when the Adelaide Weismann Center for Innovative Leadership in Education was founded. The purpose of the Center is to foster the enrichment of Bank Street's current activities in educational leadership, to develop a line of documentation and research to support such enrichment, and to formulate new programs to meet new educational needs. Last year, the Center formed the LDRS (Lab for the Design and Redesign of Schools) Consortium with Teachers College and Fordham University's National Center for Schools and Communities. Bank Street, Teachers College, and the National Center for Schools and Communities have been working with four high-needs public schools in Brooklyn. These schools have been designated (under No Child Left Behind) as in need of improvement, and LDRS was engaged by Region 10 (Harlem, Upper West Side, and Washington Heights) to help them plan for comprehensive restructuring. Work at each site reflected the needs and concerns of the school community. In the process of redesigning the schools, LDRS has developed a working model for supporting schools that are planning for restructuring.
- Preparing Strong Leaders
The Principals Institute, founded at Bank Street in 1989, is a rigorous preparation program for New York City educators that leads to a master's degree and New York State certification in School Building Leadership. Its mission is to prepare New York City Public School leaders who are ethical, reflective, and collaborative, and who have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to create a school environment in which staff and students reach their highest potential. The Institute uses a cohort model, and works with cohorts drawn from within a single region/district or from across the school system at large. To date, over 500 students have graduated from the program, and some three-fourths of the graduates work as school or regional leaders.
- Nurturing Teacher Leaders
The Leadership Preparation Institute (LPI) coordinates several programs as part of its mission to provide principals, as well as other frontline administrators, teachers, and school personnel, with the kind of ongoing professional support and development they need to become successful school leaders. One such project is the Teacher Leader program, which works with teachers from New York City's Region 1, an area with many high-needs schools. The two-year program fosters leadership skills in teachers, who then provide assistance and guidance to less-experienced teachers in their schools. It seeks to encourage the development of teacher leaders who are willing to continually improve their practice and to share their knowledge and skills, and who are committed to the collegial work that is central to student achievement.
- Nurturing Teacher Leaders in Bilingual Education
Our newest leadership offering, BETLA, the Bilingual/ESL Teacher Leadership Academy, addresses the critical need in New York City schools for leadership in bilingual programs. Funded by the State Education Department Office of Bilingual Education, and housed within Bank Street's Leadership Preparation Institute, BETLA was created in 2001 to foster leadership skills in Bilingual/ESL teachers, who then provide assistance to fellow teachers serving English language learners. Each year BETLA accepts a new cohort of teacher leaders, providing them, at no cost, with credit-bearing college courses and support from college advisors in the form of individual school visits, group conferences, and professional development seminars.
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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.
