Bank Street College of Education
Bank Street College of Education is a private school and graduate school in New York City. It consists of a graduate-only teacher training college[4] and an independent nursery-through-8th-grade school. In 2020 the graduate school had about 65 full-time teaching staff and approximately 850 students, of which 87% were female.[4]
Type | Private graduate school and school for children | |
---|---|---|
Established | 1916 | |
Endowment | $49.1 million (2019)[1] | |
President | Shael Polakow-Suransky | |
Academic staff | 125 | |
Students | 549 (2018, graduate school)[2] 451 (2019, school for children)[3] | |
Location | , , United States 40°48′20″N 73°57′59″W | |
Campus | Urban | |
Website | bankstreet | |
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History
The origins of the school lie in the Bureau of Educational Experiments, which was established in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, her husband Wesley Clair Mitchell, and Harriet Merrill Johnson; Lucy Mitchell's cousin Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge provided financial support.[5][6] The bureau was intended to foster research into, and development of, experimental and progressive education, and was influenced by the thinking of Edward Thorndike and John Dewey, both of whom Mitchell had studied with at Columbia University. The bureau was run by a council of twelve members, but Mitchell was its most influential figure until the 1950s.[5]
In 1919 the bureau started a nursery school for children from fifteen to thirty-six months old; Harriet Johnson was the director. The school fed in to the Play School for three- to seven-year-olds run by Caroline Pratt; eight-year-olds were taught in a special class by members of the bureau.[5]
Academics
Accreditation
Since 1960 the school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.[7] Bank Street School for Children is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools.[3]
Head Start
It is one of about hundred schools in the Manhattan area which participate in the national Head Start Program of the Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.[8]
Bank Street Bookstore
The Bank Street Bookstore opened in 1970 in the lobby of Bank Street College, moving to its second location on 112th Street and Broadway shortly thereafter. Now located on Broadway and West 107th Street, Bank Street Book Store operates as a community bookstore for New York's Upper West Side, selling children's books and educational toys and games. The bookstore also hosts readings, daily story time, and celebrity events, with past guests including Stephen Colbert, Julianne Moore, and author Jeff Kinney. Operating losses and a ten-year decline in revenue forced the Bank Street Book Store to relocate in September 2014, moving from its 112th Street location to a new location on 107th Street.[9] Its reopening ceremony featured appearances from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and notable authors Robie Harris and Isabel Gillies, among others.[10]
Alumni
Graduate school
- Bill Ayers, elementary education theorist, former domestic terrorist, and retired Distinguished Professor, College of Education, University of Illinois, Chicago
- Lee Bennett Hopkins, educator, poet, author, and anthologist
- Claudine K. Brown, director at the Smithsonian Institution, museum educator, artist
- Margaret Wise Brown, author of classic children's books such as Goodnight Moon
- Ruth Cohn, psychotherapist, educator, and poet
- Rosina Fernhoff, Obie Award-winning theater actress
- Robie Harris, award-winning children's book author
- Trudie Lamb-Richmond, Schaghticoke Tribal Nation member and educator
- Anne Mitchell, early childhood education consultant and co-founder of the Alliance on Early Childhood Finance
- Shael Polakow-Suransky, current president and former Chief Academic Officer of the New York City Education Department
- Miriam Roth, Israeli writer and scholar of children's books, kindergarten teacher, and educator
- Julie Stevens, actress and acting coach
- Dorothy Stoneman, founder and president of YouthBuild USA
- Ellen Tarry, the first African-American picture book author
- Edith Thacher Hurd, children's book writer with more than 70 books to her credit as well as a few collaborations with Margaret Wise Brown
- Lucy Wainwright Roche, singer-songwriter
- Sara Wilford, philanthropist and granddaughter of Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Valerie Wilson Wesley, author and former executive editor of Essence Magazine
- Diane Wolkstein, folklorist and a former New York City official storyteller
- Adam Gidwitz, author
References
- As of June 30, 2019. "U.S. and Canadian 2019 NTSE Participating Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2019 Endowment Market Value, and Percentage Change in Market Value from FY18 to FY19 (Revised)". National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- "Bank Street College of Education". College Navigator. National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
- "Bank Street School for Children". New York State Association of Independent Schools. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
- Bank Street College of Education. Peterson's LLC. Accessed February 2020.
- Joyce Antler (1999). Mitchell, Lucy Sprague (02 July 1878–15 October 1967). American National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0900513. (subscription required).
- Lucy Sprague Mitchell. In: John Arthur Garraty, Mark C. Carnes (editors) (1988). Dictionary of American Biography, supplement eight: 1966-1970. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 9780684186184. (subscription required).
- "Bank Street College of Education". Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
- Bank Street College of Education - 02CH010795. Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Accessed February 2020.
- Alter, Alexandra (September 1, 2014). "Signs of Literary Life for Two Booksellers on the Upper West Side". The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
- "Grand Opening Festival". Bank Street Book Store. Retrieved August 12, 2015.