A History of NYC Public SchoolsEarly Career FellowshipIn-Person
Friday, Feb 27, 2026
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m
NYU SPS Midtown Center
11 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
Open to participants in the Early Career Fellowship.
How did our schools come to be this way? This master class offers teachers a capsule history of education in New York City, from the 19th century to 21st. It locates the present within the trajectory of educational striving, access, and exclusion in its schools. Through primary sources that document the perspectives of teachers, students, parents, and officials, the class considers two timely and enduring questions about NYC schools: schooling for whom? and, who decides? Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on how these histories relate to their own professional identities and to their curricular choices.
HISTORY, SOCIAL STUDIES, ENGLISH, SPECIAL EDUCATION
Ansley Erickson
Ansley T. Erickson is an associate professor of history and education policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, and director of the Teachers College Center on History and Education. She studies how racism and capitalism shape schooling in cities, and how communities fight for educational equality. She coedited Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community, and she leads the New York City Civil Rights History Project, an online teaching resource. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post and Dissent magazine, as well as several local venues and academic journals. She has received fellowships and grants from the Spencer Foundation, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Archives, among others. Before becoming a historian, Erickson taught history and humanities in New York City public schools.