Jessica Charles, PhD
Board Member
Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Jessica joined Bank Street in 2016 and served as Director of Scholarship on Educator Practice. The practice of teaching, the development of teachers, and the research of teachers, teaching, and teacher education have constituted the bulk of Jessica’s professional and scholarly interests and activities.
At Bank Street, she researches educator preparation practices and disseminates those findings to a broad audience of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. Her projects include a close observation of a Bank Street faculty member’s work at a New York City school; an analysis of Bank Street’s district partnerships; research of a faculty inquiry process in the Graduate School; research on teacher educators’ conceptions of modeling as a pedagogy; research of a community-based teacher education program in the Bronx; and the development of several blogs, audio projects, reports and toolkits to disseminate Bank Street’s knowledge of young children and practice of teaching, leadership, and educator preparation. She also teaches a research course in the museum education program, as well as Observation & Recording, a foundational Bank Street course. Before coming to Bank Street, Jessica led multiple aspects of the teacher education enterprise. She was a teacher educator and director of teacher education programs at UC Berkeley, as well as the director of strategic partnerships for Lewis & Clark College. She began her career as a social studies teacher in Brooklyn, New York, and later started two schools for high school students in Oregon. She also served as a teacher trainer in New Orleans and as a curriculum developer, teacher trainer, and teacher at San Quentin State Prison. These experiences have given Jessica a broad view of the range of educational, social, and economic issues facing students, teachers, and communities in a variety of U.S. contexts.
CANY Board Members
Martha King
William Snipes
Kenneth Henderson
Arti Finn
Michelle Daniel
Wesley Caines
Jessica Charles, PhD
Stanley Richards
Caitlin Sikes
