Bank Street College President Augusta Kappner to Step Down June 2008

New York, NY - May 18, 2007  - Augusta Souza Kappner announced today to Bank Street faculty and staff that she will step down as president at the end of the 2007-08 academic year. She has led the College since 1995.

Bank Street Board of Trustees Chair Sue Kaplan said, "For twelve years, the College has flourished under Dr. Kappner's exceptional leadership. Gussie has launched innovative programs in teacher preparation, early childhood education, drop-out prevention and college preparation for adolescents, and leadership development; guided us through a demanding and exhilarating strategic planning process to affirm and interpret Bank Street's mission to address contemporary challenges in American education; and led our successful capital campaign, increasing our endowment sevenfold.  Because of the Kappner years, Bank Street looks to a future of continued innovation and dedication to leadership in teaching and learning."

"This was a tough decision for me to make,"said Kappner," but I believe every institution needs a different type of leader for different eras. Bank Street is a distinctive and distinguished institution -- the only independent graduate school of education with a K-8 independent day school and an extensive array of professional development and community service programs.  With the help of an enormously talented faculty and staff, and a deeply committed Board of Trustees, we made extraordinary progress over the last twelve years and served students who have become or are well on their way to becoming visionary educational leaders."  

During Kappner's tenure, the College has built productive partnerships with hundreds of public schools such as the New Beginnings project in Newark and Urban Schools Attuned in New York City, where Bank Street has prepared more than 400 principals and assistant principals. Bank Street also created a series on educational policy issues; launched a new center to advocate for the highest quality literature for all children from infancy through adolescence; led efforts to bring Universal Pre-Kindergarten to the children of New York State; and developed innovative teacher training programs in science through its Kerlin Institute and in technology through its Center for Urban Teacher Education and Technology.  Under Kappner's leadership, the College developed and continues to pursue pioneering work on documenting exemplary teaching, particularly through the groundbreaking Teachers for a New Era project, for which the Carnegie Corporation of New York selected Bank Street as one of eleven sites in the United States and the only one in New York.

"Our strategic plan - Timeless Values, Timely Actions - renews Bank Street's dedication to encouraging equity in education as fundamental to a democratic society, to preparing outstanding teachers for the most challenging urban settings, and to infusing all we strive to accomplish with a commitment to diversity in all senses of that term", Kappner said.

Kappner was appointed to the presidency of Bank Street after serving as Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Clinton Administration. From 1986 to 1993, she was President of the Borough of Manhattan Community College and Acting President of the City University of New York. A recognized leader in the field of education, she co-chaired then Governor-elect Spitzer's Education Task Force on Education and served on Mayor Bloomberg's Educational Policy Panel until 2006.  In a proclamation about Kappner issued last year, the Mayor wrote that "her leadership has benefited not only New York City schools, but also our nation's entire educational system".

Bank Street College of Education was founded in 1916 as the Bureau of Educational Experiments. 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.

The College is composed of a Graduate School of Education, serving 900 students; a School for Children and Family Center serving 500 children aged six months to thirteen years; a Division of Continuing Education; and a Publications and Media Group, which prepares learning materials for and about children in a variety of media. Through the work of these divisions, Bank Street influences thousands of children, youth, parents, and educators throughout the United States and abroad.