While attending the Klingenstein Center's Heads of Schools Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, fellows studied Horace Mann's nineteenth-century vision for a "common school" that would unite all citizens; they considered whether this model is still best suited to serve a democratic society and questioned how current…

In this article, the authors offer a descriptive essay outlining the framework and processes of a five-year institutional renewal effort at Bank Street College of Education. Extended the opportunity to participate in the "Teachers for a New Era" (TNE) initiative, a multi-year, multi-million dollar effort to enhance and "radically…

A number of authors have drawn connections between progressive education and the Social Gospel movement, the Second Great Awakening, and other phenomena of 19th century America. In most cases these authors have focused on progressive educators from Protestant backgrounds, but progressivism reached into other American subcultures. Felix Adler was…

Judge Justine Wise Polier's judicial career illuminates the interconnections between the history of the New York City public schools and the Children's Courts, making clear that for many children who found themselves in trouble, justice and education were intertwined. Critics of the children's courts have argued that they were flawed from their…

Why did the New York City school district once have the lowest ratio of minority teachers to minority students of any large urban school system in the country? Using an array of historical sources, this provocative book explores the barriers that African American and Latino candidates faced in attempting to become public school teachers in New…

The claim that faculty conduct research is one of the main justifications for the modern university. Supposedly, academe carries out important, cutting-edge inquiries in which society has an interest. In fact, states this author, research at American universities is becoming narrow and artificial, out of touch with social realities, and of…

In August 2006, the Foundation for Long Term Care (Albany, New York) received funding for a variant on service learning in elder care in which Boomers, other older adults, as well as college students would jointly engage in service-learning projects designed to address community needs in five different college towns and cities. This article…

Digital learning makes possible the "unbundling" of school provisions--that is, it allows children to be served by providers from almost anywhere, in new and more customized ways. At the same time, because it destandardizes and decentralizes educational delivery, digital education is far harder to bring under the yoke of the…

Background/Context: The contemporary small-school movement traces its roots to the alternative schools of the 1960s and the development of small urban schools in the 1980s. However, the small-school movement has its roots in the progressive movement of the early twentieth century. Although there is a significant amount of research on the early…

New College was an experimental and demonstration undergraduate teacher education program, founded in 1932 at Teachers College Columbia University, only to be shut down by the administration eight years later. Described as an "unorthodox venture," New College promised to be an alternative route to teacher education at a time when the…

There are six oversized boxes in the New York Historical Society that contain the remains of the Public School Society (PSS), New York City's first experiment with publicly-funded education. They are filled with the detritus of the Society's nearly fifty years: recommendations for prospective teachers from their clergymen, student certificates of…

In the May 2009 issue of "English Journal", we reported on our analysis of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to provide a first look at changes in the teaching of writing over the past 30 years. In this article, we provide a more detailed look, drawing on data collected from visits to 260 English, math, social…

In the 1920s and 1930s, Paul R. Hanna and Harold O. Rugg developed new textbooks that integrated social studies curriculum in the elementary grades for the first time. Each author's curriculum; Hanna's expanding environments framework and Rugg's recurring concepts with a focus on contemporary issues has significantly impacted today's elementary…

In 1997, fifteen council meetings were observed and recorded at the Albany Free School and subsequently analyzed. Unbeknownst to the school, the council meetings were found to be very similar to what Lawrence Kohlberg had in mind when he developed his Just Community Model. This article discusses how this council meeting forum compares to…

Kate Brock's diary provides insight into the daily life of a one-room rural school teacher from Delaware County, New York, during the years 1902-1906. Through her diary she gives a candid narrative of her life as teacher and a member of a rural community. From the 3 1/2 years of almost daily entries, it is possible to identify a number of topics…