Teaching for a Changing World: The Graduates of Bank Street College of Education – Case Studies

In May 2012, Bank Street College contracted with the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) to design and implement an independent, multiyear, multiphase study examining the preparation, practices, and effectiveness of graduates of Bank Street College teacher certification programs who graduated between 2002 and 2012.

As part of the larger evaluation project, Teaching for a Changing World: The Graduates of Bank Street College of Education, Ira Lit & Linda Darling-Hammond (Prinicpal Investigators) employed a set of classroom and school-level case studies. The case studies sought to answer the question: What does the Bank Street developmental-interaction approach look like in practice? 

• Learning to Play, Playing to Learn: The Bank Street Developmental-Interaction Approach in Liliana’s Kindergarten Classroom >>Download PDF

• Artful Teaching and Learning: The Bank Street Developmental-Interaction Approach at Midtown West School >>Download PDF

• A School Growing Roots: The Bank Street Developmental-Interaction Approach at Community Roots Charter School >>Download PDF

Each case study shares vivid descriptions of Bank Street graduates in their classrooms and, to the degree possible, consider the influences of those practices on students’ opportunities for learning. The first case study offers an in depth look the practice of “Liliana,” a Bank Street alumna and kindergarten teacher at Brooklyn New School, a diverse public elementary school with longstanding ties to Bank Street. Liliana’s teaching is emblematic of the Bank Street graduates whose classrooms were observed, and it highlights the Bank Street approach in the context of a particular classroom. The second and third cases look across multiple classrooms and report descriptively on the cumulative influence at the school level of the clustering of Bank Street graduates, connections with the college, and alignment with its approach orientations. These cases report on the practices of Bank Street graduates at Midtown West School, located in Manhattan’s theater district, and Community Roots Charter School, located in the Fort Green neighborhood in Brooklyn.