“What does it mean to truly educate?” This question pulses within the walls of Bank Street College of Education. It is a place where the future of teaching is constantly being reimagined. Bank Street College of Education is a private graduate school and school for children. It stands as a beacon for progressive education.
Established in 1916, its origins lie in the Bureau of Educational Experiments. Lucy Sprague Mitchell along with her husband Wesley Clair Mitchell, and Harriet Merrill Johnson founded it. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Lucy Mitchell’s cousin, provided key financial support. The Bureau sought to foster research into experimental and progressive education. Influences included the great thinkers Edward Thorndike and John Dewey. Mitchell had studied with both men at Columbia University. Until the 1950s Mitchell remained the Bureau’s most influential figure. The institution’s name comes from its location at 69 Bank Street in Greenwich Village from 1930 to 1971.
Bank Street’s influence extends far beyond its physical location. In 1919, the bureau started a nursery school for children. Harriet Johnson served as its director. This nursery school fed into the Play School for older children run by Caroline Pratt. Members of the bureau taught eight-year-olds in a special class.
Did you know that Bank Street College of Education served as an academic consultant? This was during development for Multiplication Rock. It was the first series of Schoolhouse Rocks.
In 1958, Bank Street received a $1,000,000 grant. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare gave it. This grant supported a five-year study. The study focused on how schools could improve mental health development in younger children.
Bank Street Writer was a personal computer word processing application. The college developed it in 1981. It was marketed to school and home computer markets. Bank Street Music Writer followed in 1985. It was a music composition application.
Bank Street College of Education has a graduate-only teacher training college. There is also an independent nursery-through-8th-grade school. In 2020, the graduate school had about 65 full-time teaching staff. Approximately 850 students attended. Eighty-seven percent of them were female.
Since 1960, the school has been accredited. The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools granted it. Bank Street School for Children is accredited. The New York State Association of Independent Schools recognized it. Bank Street participates in the national Head Start Program. It is one of about a hundred schools in the Manhattan area that do so.
The Bank Street School for Children is a private school. It includes nursery through eighth grade. The school is split into three divisions. There is a lower, middle and upper school. Approximately 50% of the 451 students are students of color. The instructors are often current or past students of Bank Street’s graduate school.
The Bank Street Bookstore was an Upper West Side community bookstore. It sold children’s books, educational toys, and games. It opened in 1970 in the lobby of Bank Street College. The bookstore hosted readings, daily story time, and celebrity events. Stephen Colbert and Julianne Moore were past guests. The bookstore closed in August 2020.
Many notable individuals have passed through Bank Street’s halls. Alumni include Bill Ayers, Margaret Wise Brown, and Shael Polakow-Suransky. Liz Garbus, Ben Lerer, and Ally Sheedy attended the School for Children.
Bank Street College of Education is more than just a school. It is a living laboratory. Here, educators learn to nurture the minds of tomorrow. It champions the belief that education is a force for positive change.