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Gil Schmerler

Director, Leadership for Educational Change Program

Supervised Fieldwork Advisor; Course Instructor

Academic Interests

Collaborative supervision Middle schools School change Service learning Small schools Teacher leadership Team building

Some of the Values that Shape My Work

Collaboration, democracy, and intense personalization are at the heart of all my work, whether it be in supervision, teaching, or simply trying to make this a better, more fulfilling world for all people. I dislike pretense, rigidity, formality, humorlessness, selfishness, and insensitivity. I want schools to be alive, humane, inviting, inclusive, funny, and deeply thoughtful places. I love everyone who contributes to making them that.

Work with Families, Children, Schools, and Communities

High school English teacher; director of public alternative high school; principal of independent middle and high schools; staff developer; designer of new, small schools.

Recent Professional Contributions

Fieldwork advisement each year with 6 or 7 students

Collaborative Inquiry offerings in Teacher Leadership: 4 or 5 students each year

Active member of 3 Bank Street committees: Program Review Committee, Integrative Master’s Project Committee (with special responsibility for Collaborative Student Faculty Inquiries); Occasional Papers Committee

Co-convenor of working group of small schools leaders to respond to their NYC “report cards”

Recipient of Bank Street College Alumni Association Faculty Recognition Award, 2010

Educational Background

  • Ed.D., Educational Administration, Teachers College, Columbia University
  • Ed.M., Educational Administration, Teachers College, Columbia University
  • M.A., Teaching of English, Teachers College, Columbia University
  • B.A., English, Amherst College

Selected Publications and Presentations

  • Schmerler, G. (2012). Silver linings. In W. Ayers, & G. Boldt (Eds.), Occasional papers 27: Challenging the politics of the teacher accountability movement: Toward a more hopeful educational future (pp. 30-33). New York: Bank Street College of Education.

  • Schmerler, G. (2009). Introduction. In G. Schmerler (Ed.), Occasional paper series 23: Teacher leaders: Transforming schools from the inside (pp. 3-8). New York: Bank Street College of Education.

  • Schmerler, G. (Ed.). (2009). Occasional paper series 23: Teacher leaders: Transforming schools from the inside. New York: Bank Street College of Education.

  • Raywid, M. A., & Schmerler, G. (2003). Not so easy going: The policy environments of small urban schools and schools-within-schools. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, Appalachia Educational Laboratory.

  • Schmerler, G. (2002). Engaging the system. In W. Ayers, M. Klonsky & G. Lyon (Eds.), Simple justice: The small schools revolution and the fight for fairness in our schools (pp. 180-187). New York: Teacher College Press.

  • Schmerler, G. (2002). One man’s continuing war against decentralization: A long struggle for school autonomy. Phi Delta Kappan Journal, 83(5), 370-374.

Contact me:

(212) 875-4709 ace@bankstreet.edu
610 W 112Th St # 814
New York, NY 10025-1898