Bank Street College of Education


Bank Street College of Education is a private nonprofit educational institution in Manhattan, in New York City in the United States. It consists of a graduate-only teacher training college, 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.

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. 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.
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.

Academics

Accreditation

Since 1960 the school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Bank Street School for Children is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools.

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.

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. Its reopening ceremony featured appearances from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and notable authors Robie Harris and Isabel Gillies, among others.

Alumni

Graduate school