Research, Publications & Policy
Snapshots of Practice
Our Snapshots of Practice series presents an in-depth look at Bank Street’s work with students, teachers, and communities to provide fellow educators and researchers with a closer look at the Bank Street approach to teaching and learning. Through reports, videos, audio files, and more, each case study explores a distinct practice, tool, or curriculum and provides thoughtful observations, careful research, and substantial documentation to support study and execution beyond Bank Street-lead classrooms and learning environments.
At the core of each snapshot, the Bank Street approach provides a consistent, nurturing, and effective foundation for our work with both children and adults. By combining a deep understanding of human development and educational theory with a disciplined approach to observation and reflection, the series demonstrates how Bank Street educators and leaders provide students of all ages with meaningful learning opportunities best suited for their social, emotional, and cognitive learning and growth.
Films Explore the Bank Street Approach in Context
Two films titled “A Civics Lesson: Perspective Taking in Early Adolescence” and “The Ideas Came from the Kids: The Developmental-Interaction Approach at Castle Bridge, a New York City Public School” illustrate what Bank Street’s developmental-interaction approach looks like in action at the Bank Street School for Children and Castle Bridge School, respectively.
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Bringing Joy to Uninspired Teachers of Math
This publication explores how to inspire teachers to find the joy in math so they can help their students do the same. Through a variety of tools, techniques, and helpful hints, the resource illustrates what high quality math instruction looks like and how teachers can reframe their own thinking about math to create deeper learning opportunities for their students.
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Coaching:
How a Focus on Adult Development Leads to Improvements in Student Learning
The Bank Street Education Center partners with schools and districts across the country to help improve teaching and learning at scale. This publication documents the professional learning processes, tools, and activities used by Bank Street facilitators in their coaching work with teachers and leaders and brings to light what strengths-based, developmentally meaningful teaching and learning looks like for both adults and children.
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Learning to Teach:
Observing and Reflecting
This video series provides a platform for professional development in early childhood education by introducing viewers to classroom footage accompanied by facilitated discussions about observation and teaching practice. Viewers will get a hands-on look at how beginning teachers learn to closely observe children and engage in reflective conversations about students, materials, the classroom environment, and themselves.
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Progressive Leaders Group:
Democracy in Schools and Classrooms
The Progressive Leaders Group at Bank Street College brings together Bank Street alumni in leadership positions across the tri-state area to analyze and discuss challenges in schools and organizations. In this snapshot of a group meeting, a series of audio recordings provide a window into how the committee explored the concept of democracy in schools and classrooms.
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Midtown West:
The Restaurant Curriculum
Bank Street faculty and staff regularly work in partnership with public schools to support teachers and leaders in sustaining and strengthening progressive educational practices. This Snapshot of Practice follows educators from Bank Street College and Midtown West as they made teaching decisions to engage and educate first grade students though a study of food and community.
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Descriptive Inquiry at Bank Street:
Building Intellectual Community While Responding to Accreditation
Over the 2016-17 academic year, Bank Street Graduate School faculty and staff participated in a school-wide Descriptive Inquiry process to examine their programs and pedagogy. As part of this process, faculty met regularly to share their practices and to strengthen their well-established programs in teacher and leader preparation, museum education, and child life.
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Structures and Supports:
Building a Throughline Approach to District Reform
The Bank Street Education Center has developed a “throughline” approach to district reform designed to support districts across the system to foster conditions that enable schools to act as units of change and embed strong practices through teacher and leaders and teams. This Snapshot of Practice take a closer look at the Bank Street Education Center’s throughline approach and some of the districts they have partnered with to implement district reform.
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Inquiry Series Explores Cross-Institutional Collaboration
To help strengthen educator preparation across the United States, EdPrepLab network members from across the country have partnered to form and document inquiry groups focused on the exploration of an educator preparation topic related to deeper learning and equity. The inquiry briefs in this series explore these collaborative efforts and offer reflections, tools, and snapshot summaries of cross- or intra-institutional work.
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