Shael Polakow-Suransky

Shael Polakow-Suransky (born January 10, 1972) is the president of the Bank Street College of Education. Previously, he was the New York City Department of Education Chief Academic Officer and Senior Deputy Chancellor.

Early life and education Shael Polakow-Suransky was born January 10, 1972 in Witbank, South Africa, where his Jewish parents, Valerie Polakow and Leonard Suransky, were anti-apartheid activists.

In 1973, the family emigrated to the United States, settling in Michigan, The school was specifically designed to support language development and literacy for a population of students historically neglected by New York's large comprehensive high schools. He also drew inspiration from educators who worked with similar student populations; in a 2001 book review of Vito Perrone's Teacher with a Heart: Reflections on Leonard Covello and Community, Polakow-Suransky writes that "the task of rebuilding school communities that can support students and one day extend beyond into the community is formidable" but that he was driven by "a sense of possibility."

In 2004, Polakow-Suransky joined the central office at the Department of Education. He first served as Deputy CEO for the Office of New Schools. and lead to higher college readiness rates.

Polakow-Suransky later became the Deputy Chancellor for Performance and Accountability. As the Department of Education shifted its focus to accountability, he launched a program called Design Your Own Assessment, which ultimately involved more than 200 schools, to create innovative teacher designed formative assessments as an alternative to the City's standardized periodic assessments.

In 2011, he was appointed Chief Academic Officer and Senior Deputy Chancellor. In this role, he oversaw the Division of Academics, Performance, and Support, which had over 1,280 employees and an annual budget of $400 million. The division was responsible for providing instructional resources, support, and supervision for New York City's 1600+ schools. During his tenure as Chief Academic Officer, Polakow-Suransky focused on building schools' capacity to strengthen what Richard Elmore calls the "instructional core," or "the relationship between teachers and students in the presence of content". Polakow-Suransky led the City's work around increasing college and career readiness rates, including through new accountability measures.

Presidency at Bank Street College of Education On Tuesday, January 21, 2014, Polakow-Suransky announced that he would depart the New York City Department of Education to become the president of Bank Street College of Education, his alma mater. He is the first alumnus of Bank Street to serve as its president. In October 2014, he and a professor at the college, Nancy Nager, penned an opinion piece in The New York Times on the importance of meaningful play in pre-K classrooms as a foundation for successful life-long learning. In May 2015, he was elected to the Board of Directors of PENCIL, an education nonprofit that unites businesses with New York City public schools for the creation of beneficial programs and initiatives.