Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development

The New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (branded as NYU Steinhardt) is the school of education at New York University. The school was founded as the School of Pedagogy in 1890.

Located on NYU's founding campus in Greenwich Village, the Steinhardt School offers bachelor's, master's, advanced certificate, and doctoral programs in the fields of applied psychology, art, education, health, media, and music.

History

Founded in 1890 as the School of Pedagogy, it was the first of its kind in the United States. The School in its inception had four departments: Institutes of Education, History of Education and Ethics, Experimental and Physiological Psychology, and Descriptive Psychology.

The School of Pedagogy was one of very few graduate schools in the United States to accept women as students and grant them degrees; by 1900, the NYU School of Pedagogy had granted doctorates to 18 women, while only 3 other doctorates in education had been conferred to US women to that point.EELLS, WALTER CROSBY. "American Doctoral Dissertations on Education Written by Women in the Nineteenth Century." Educational Horizons 35, no. 2 (1956): 53–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42923164. This put the School of Pedagogy in an important position as it was "almost the only [institution] to give women a doctorate in the highly feminized field of education."Rossiter, Margaret W. "Doctorates for American Women, 1868-1907." History of Education Quarterly 22, no. 2 (1982): 159–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/367747. As an article in the History of Education Quarterly put it,Women schoolteachers flocked to New York University's School of Pedagogy, because, as graduates of normal colleges, they were prohibited from entering its Graduate School. Because the School of Pedagogy was so feminized, its administration organized a Woman's Advisory Council of wealthy New Yorkers who covered the School's annual deficits for many years.In 1921, a newly appointed dean—John W. Withers—proposed the school adopt a new name, the School of Education; Withers also oversaw the school's purchase of land on and movement to Washington Square. The Education Building on Washington Square opened in 1930 and still serves as the School's home today. Enrollment increased significantly, from 141 students in 1920 to 7,493 students in 1930 (of these, 5,449 were undergraduates and 1,544 were graduate students).

The School added areas of study related to education (music education, art education, physical education, etc.), which then expanded to broader fields. (The 1942 Education Violet yearbook lists graduates from departments including business education, industrial art, and nursing education, among many others; and a list of doctoral dissertations from 1890 to 1970 catalogues student writing on subjects ranging from safety education and accident prevention, to vocational rehabilitation, to communications.) By the 1970s, the School housed a range of academic fields beyond education, and as Dean Daniel E. Griffiths introduced 39 new programs to the school, he also oversaw its 1974 renaming to the School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Professions (SEHNAP).

After reverting to the prior School of Education name in 1994, the School received a US$10 million donation from Michael and Judy Steinhardt in 2001 and added the family's name to become the Steinhardt School of Education; the Steinhardts gave another $10 million gift in 2006. In 2007, the school was renamed the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development to reflect the diversity of its academic programs.

Academics As of the Spring 2026 semester, NYU Steinhardt enrolls roughly 6,321 students from about 85 countries, consisting of approximately 3,024 undergraduates, 2,820 master's and advanced certificate students, 271 PhD students, and 390 professional doctorate (EdD, OTD, DMA, DPT) students. Nearly two-thirds are people of color and 27% are international students.

Steinhardt has been ranked among the top 10 of the US News & World Report Best Graduate Schools of Education every year since 2019, reaching its highest ranking at #6 in 2026.

Academic departments The school employs 284 full-time faculty in 11 academic departments, offering more than 195 programs and degrees.

Administration, Leadership, and Technology Programs in Educational Leadership, Educational Communication and Technology, and Higher and Postsecondary Education offer master's and doctoral degrees.

Applied Psychology Offerings include bachelor's degrees in Applied Psychology and Global Public Health / Applied Psychology; master's degrees in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness (on-campus and online); and doctoral degrees in Clinical/Counseling Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Psychology and Social Intervention. The department was founded in 1989 and now includes research labs studying trauma, suicide prevention, infant neurodevelopment, self-regulation, and more.

Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities The department offers graduate and undergraduate degrees in Applied Statistics and Computational Social Science, Education and Social Policy, Education Studies, International Education, and Sociology of Education, and minors in Peace and Conflict Studies as well as Global and Urban Education Studies.

Art and Art Professions The Art and Art Professions department has BFAs and MFAs in studio art, as well as master's degrees in Art Education, Art Therapy, Costume Studies, and Visual Arts Administration. The School of Pedagogy offered a course in the Teaching of Art as early as 1911. Facilities include studio space for painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, mixed media, and digital art.

Communicative Sciences and Disorders Programs include undergraduate bachelor's degrees and a minor; online and on campus master's degrees; and a PhD. The department provides graduate training and clinical services at the NYU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.

Media, Culture, and Communication The Department of Media, Culture, and Communication offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs, including a minor in Disability Studies and a dual degree (MA/MSc) with the London School of Economics established in 2025. Established by Neil Postman in 1971 as the NYU graduate program in Media Ecology, it was an outgrowth of the School of Education's Department of Communications in Education.

Music and Performing Arts Professions

Undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees are available within a variety of programs:

Performance: Brass Studies, Jazz Studies, Percussion Studies, Piano Studies, String Studies, Vocal Performance, Woodwind Studies Business and Administration: Music Business, Performing Arts Administration Performing Arts Education and Therapy: Dance Education, Drama Therapy, Educational Theatre, Music Education, Music Therapy Composition and Technology: Concert Composition, Music Technology, Screen Scoring, Songwriting

In 1908, the School of Pedagogy added a single Teaching Music course, with a nine-course Department of Music Teaching established in 1913. Though these courses and departments were dissolved as attendance waned during the First World War, 1925 saw the reestablishment of a music department within the School of Education.

In 1968, the New York College of Music, which was an American conservatory of music originally founded in 1878 and located in Manhattan, closed and merged with NYU, leading to the music department of the School of Education to serve both in its original capacity and as the spiritual continuation of the New York College of Music."New York College of Music Commences 48th Season," Brooklyn Standard Union, October 24, 1926, pg. 10American Universities and Colleges: A Dictionary of Name Changes, by Alice H. Songe, Scarecrow Press (1978), pg. 137; "Beta Tau, New York University," Pan Pipes, G. Banta Publishing Company, Vol. 62, pg. 56, 1969

Nutrition and Food Studies The department offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degree programs in Nutrition and Dietetics and Food Studies, as well as minors in both, alongside a teaching kitchen (the NYU Food Lab) and a teaching farm (the NYU Urban Farm Lab).

Occupational Therapy Graduate programs in occupational therapy include entry-level, professional, and post-professional degrees, as well as a hybrid OTD option for practicing occupational therapists. The School of Education began offering classes to educate occupational therapists in 1940 and, in 1973, established the world's first doctor of philosophy program in occupational therapy.

Physical Therapy The department includes a post-professional MA in pathokinesiology as well as a range of doctoral degrees and an advanced certificate in the study and practice of physical therapy. The School of Education first offered a bachelor's degree in physical therapy in 1927, with senior year education conducted in collaboration with the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled (now known as the Hospital for Special Surgery).

Teaching and Learning Undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs are available in the below areas of study, with initial and professional certification options and some hybrid offerings:

Bilingual Education Childhood Education Computer Science Education Early Childhood Education English Education Environmental Conservation Education Literacy Education Math Education Science Education Social Studies Education Special Education Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) World Language Education

The department is home to projects and centers including the Constantine Georgiou Library and Resource Center for Children and Literature, the Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers, an Office of School and Community Partnerships, the Multilingual Learners Think Tank, Practitioner Action Research, and more.

Online and hybrid degrees Online and hybrid degrees include:

Doctor of Occupational Therapy for Practicing Therapists

EdD in Leadership and Innovation MA in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness: accredited through the Masters in Psychology and Counseling Accreditation Council (MPCAC) MAT in Inclusive Childhood Education MAT in Secondary Education MS in Communicative Sciences and Disorders: accredited by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's (ASHA) Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA)

Former fields of study

Global Public Health: The School of Pedagogy added a course on school hygiene in 1912. The School of Education added classes in hygiene and teaching health in 1931, with courses in the Department of Physical Education and Health including public health nursing by 1940. SEHNAP's Department of Health Studies included public health, disability studies, and human sexuality and offered courses on community health problems, environmental health, and world health crises. By 2012, Steinhardt had a bachelor's, master's, and PhD in public health available, which migrated to NYU's School of Global Public Health by 2016. Nursing: Early courses in 1923 ranged from Education in Health and Education in Accident Prevention to courses in the Physical Education Department. In September 2005, NYU's Division of Nursing moved from the Steinhardt School to form the College of Nursing (now New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing) within the College of Dentistry.

Research centers and institutes

Current centers and institutes Steinhardt research centers and other initiatives involve internal and external scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students.

Center of Health and Rehabilitation Research (CoHRR)