Since its inception one hundred years ago, women have been at the forefront of Bank Street’s work, molding the College into a highly regarded educational institution with a global reach. From educators and researchers to writers and thought leaders, these pioneers have led the way for progressive educators at Bank Street and beyond.
With a vision to explore and improve the education of children, Lucy Sprague Mitchell established Bank Street as a lab school and research organization in 1916. Called the Bureau of Educational Experiments, the institution embodied the principals of humanist John Dewey by observing and documenting children in a quest to better understand the kinds of environments that are best suited for their learning and growth.
A true revolutionary, Mitchell’s work influenced generations of educators, writers, and families. She founded the Here and Now storybook movement, inspiring a more child-centered approach to children’s literature, and expanded the Bureau to include a nursery school and a Cooperative School for Student Teachers. Her vision, articulated in the Bank Street mission and credo, continues to inspire children and adults to connect learning and teaching meaningfully to the outside world for social, emotional, and cognitive growth.
In step with Mitchell’s work, women of Bank Street have also made significant contributions to children’s literature. As a Bank Street teacher and early member of Bank Street Writers’ Lab, Margaret Wise Brown penned the classic children’s book Goodnight Moon. Irma Black, who served as the head of Bank Street’s Division of Publications and Communications, wrote more than 20 children’s books and launched the Bank Street Readers, the first multicultural, multiethnic urban school books.
Others helped develop and articulate Bank Street’s innovative approach to teaching and learning for schools and teachers to use nationwide in their own classroom settings. Charlotte Winsor, director of graduate programs for teacher education at Bank Street, and Claudia Lewis, a graduate of the Bank Street Cooperative School for Student Teachers, described Bank Street’s pragmatic, dynamic, and hands-on approach to teacher training in Supervising the Beginning Teacher. Edna Shapiro, a graduate faculty member and research psychologist at Bank Street, developed a guide to Bank Street’s methods in Revisiting a Progressive Pedagogy, which thoroughly outlined the College’s trademark developmental-interaction approach.
Finally, women have played a seminal role in expanding the reach of the College’s influence among educators, policy makers, and thought leaders. Elizabeth Gilkeson, chair of Bank Street’s Children’s Programs, played a key role in the 1954 launch of the Bank Street School for Children, a thriving institution that continues to provide high-quality progressive education to students ages 3-14. In 1965, when the federal government established Head Start, Gilkeson and Barbara Biber—an early staff member at the Bureau, chair of the child development faculty, and director of Bank Street’s Research Division—were instrumental in developing the basic principles for federally-financed early childhood education.
Today, Bank Street continues to be a place that deeply values the ideas of progressive leaders within and beyond its community, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Our timeline includes a look at some of the women who have paved the way for a second century of innovation in progressive education.