The School of Education at City College is home to distinguished faculty committed to shaping the next generation of educators. Among them is Dr. Jan Valle, a Childhood Education and Educational Theatre professor who has dedicated her career to advancing and improving education for students with disabilities.
Dr. Jan Valle. Photo Credit: CUNY Graduate Center.
Valle’s journey into education was deeply influenced by a significant moment in history. In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) was passed, marking the first U.S. law that granted children with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate public education. At that time, Valle was pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in Special Education and Emotional Handicaps from Furman University.
“I have often said that I have grown up with special education, and I have been in this field from its inception through my entire career in one way or another,” Valle said in an interview with The RICC.
The passage of EHA (currently known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) allowed her to understand that disability and inclusion are highly political and in need of constant advocacy, Valle explained.
Valle’s teaching career began in public middle schools and high schools, where she witnessed early challenges in integrating students with disabilities into public schools under the guidelines of the new federal law.
“I recognized very early on that things were not exactly going as the law said it would,” she recalled. “There was a lot of pushback from educators, and I realized there needed to be change.”
She spent those early years advocating for students and parents through workshops, consulting with parents of students with disabilities in public schools and eventually co-founding a private school for students with dyslexia, Camperdown Academy, in 1986.
Valle also spent a decade working as an educational evaluator on a multi-disciplinary evaluation team at a developmental pediatrics center. Her evaluation role extended to accompanying and advocating for parents of students with disabilities at school meetings.
That time in her career inspired her to pursue advanced studies at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she earned her doctorate in disability studies and began a new chapter of her career as a professor.
While at Columbia, Valle created and taught a course on teaching mathematics to students with learning disabilities. Her doctoral supervisor facilitated a relationship between Dr. Valle and a prominent math educator in the CCNY’s School of Education, who later encouraged her to apply for a job at City. She initially declined to focus on completing her dissertation; however, the mission of CCNY won her over, and in 2003, she began her journey in the institution.
“One thing that I loved about City College, and still do to this day, is its focus on social justice and social mobility,” she said. “I just can’t imagine teaching anywhere else now.”
Valle’s research interests lie in Disability Studies in Education and inclusive education, focusing on the intersectionality of race, class, gender, language, culture and disability. Her work examines disability history and socio-cultural aspects of identity with disability and ableism and how inclusive education can better serve students.
Currently, Valle is engaged in several research projects, including a fellowship with the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.
“I’m looking at cultural and political factors during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that influenced the segregation of so-called uneducable and corrigible Italian immigrant boys into “special” New York City public schools,” she said.
Dr. Valle’s book publication. Photo Credit: CUNY Graduate Center.
She is also working on the third edition of her textbook with co-author David Connor, “Rethinking Disability: A Disability Studies Approach to Inclusive Practices.” Upcoming publications include chapters on gender and disability and gender and psychoeducational assessment in the SAGE Encyclopedia of Education and Gender and history of Disability Studies in Education in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies.
At CCNY, Valle teaches inclusive practice courses in various subject areas, such as educational theatre, general education (grades 1-6) and secondary STEM. She also teaches an ethno-drama capstone course for educational theatre majors to explore a current social justice issue and then devise and publicly perform an original ethno-drama based on research, media representation, and participant interviews.
Valle’s work serves as a reminder that teaching is more than a profession; despite its challenges, it is a commitment to equity, advocacy and lifelong learning.
“Education needs to be joyful,” Valle exclaimed. “Your job as a teacher is to love every single child in that room.”
Sofia is a graduate student at CUNY Brooklyn College, where she’s pursuing her M.S. in Media Studies. In addition to writing for The RICC, she’s a writer for the features section of Brooklyn College’s student-run newspaper, The Vanguard. She is also a dedicated writer for the Brooklyn News Service.