NYC DOE System-Wide Early Childhood Professional Development

RFP #1C407 Contact: Tracey-Lee Drummond Lucas, Staff Developer, 212-961-3414

Bank Street's Professional Development Services for Early Childhood Educators
The goals of Bank Street professional development services are straightforward: To raise the professional competence of early care and education educators, strengthen the quality of program services, and achieve positive outcomes for young children and their families. Three interconnected Centers provide a wide variety of training and program development services to help early childhood educators understand and apply the research base on the learning and development of young children to their classroom practices. Each Center provides educators access to models and methods that increase the success of all students. Since its founding in 1916, Bank Street has been recognized as a leader in early childhood education, a pioneer in improving the quality of classroom education, and a national advocate for children and families.

The Center for Early Childhood Professionals (formerly known as the Center for UPK) provides professional development services for educators and others working with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers through grade one. Our professional development services are designed to improve teaching quality and, subsequently, improve child outcomes and help educators implement effective research-based language and literacy strategies to support children's emergent literacy, numeracy and school readiness skills, including children with disabilities, social/emotional challenges, and English language learners. Professional development services are intensive and support comprehensive standards-based early childhood instruction. We work with a range of professionals including teachers, social workers, early childhood consultants, educational assistants, parent coordinators, teacher leaders, coaches, school and regional administrators. Our services are designed to increase the knowledge and ability of the school community to provide effective programs and are conducted so that the community's capacity to continue learning together is strengthened and can continue after our services end. The Center for ECP services include: Needs assessments and professional development planning, Seminars for teaching staff on early childhood topics, Administrative staff seminars (Training of Trainers) on classroom and program assessments, mentoring, and observation and feedback conferencing, Study Group sessions for teachers, assistant teachers, early childhood coordinators, teacher leaders, and learning coaches, In-class mentoring support and coaching for teaching teams and a Family Literacy Training Series. For best results, we highly recommend that services be obtained as a complete package rather than as a single workshop. For further information, please click here.

The Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice directed by Lesley Koplow author of Creating Schools that Heal offers a number of professional development services to Pre-K through grade three teachers, administrators and school based clinicians who want to support social and emotional development in school children so that they can become eager, receptive learners. The Center focuses on collaborating with schools to create supportive school and classroom routines, to facilitate adult-child interactions in the school building, to encourage healthy peer relationships, and to increase staff's ability to use emotionally responsive literacy and other curriculums in early childhood and early grades classrooms. Our services include: Seminar series for teachers and administrators, On-site consultation and classroom coaching, Teacher support groups, Seminars and group supervision groups for social workers, Train the trainer groups for early childhood coordinators, Observation institutes on emotionally responsive practice, and Region-based intensive professional development packages. In addition, the Center offers Parent Engagement Groups to help parents of young students connect to their children's school experience and help them make a positive adjustment to school. Center staff includes teachers and clinicians with extensive background in working with children whose stress, traumatic histories or challenging experiences, makes classroom life difficult. Center staff often work on-site with teachers, administrators and clinicians to teach techniques that enhance the quality of life in the school building and in the classroom and that increase children's receptivity to socialization and learning. For further information please click here.

The Center for Early Care and Education offers assistant teachers the opportunity to obtain a credit bearing child development associate credential (CDA). The CDA program is designed for professionals whose work directly impacts infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. It provides a variety of experiences for students to build the practical skills needed to successfully become a Child Development Associate (CDA). The credential is earned through a year-long program combining advisement, internship, and course work on a variety of subjects including child development, classroom environment, curriculum, active learning, working with diverse families, special education, program management, and professionalism. The curriculum is composed of eight areas of study: an introduction to the early childhood profession, observing and recording child growth and development establishing and maintaining a safe, healthy, learning environment advancing physical and intellectual competence supporting social and emotional development and providing positive guidance establishing positive and productive relationships with parents ensuring a well-run program that is responsive to participant needs and maintaining a commitment to professionalism. For further information please email Arlene Uss, auss@bankstreet.edu. Click here to view a printable flyer.

Contact name: Tracey-Lee Drummond Lucas
Address: 610 West 112th Street, New York, NY 10025
Organization: Bank Street College
Phone: (212) 961-3414 Fax: (212) 961-3425 Email:tldlucas@bankstreet.edu