Lucy Sprague Mitchell (2 July 1878 – 15 October 1967) was an American educator and the founder of Bank Street College of Education.Mitchell attended Radcliffe College from 1896 to 1900, graduating with honors in philosophy.
During her time at Radcliffe College, Mitchell lived with Alice Freeman Palmer and George Herbert Palmer on Quincy Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Because of the college's strict codes of gender segregation at the time, Mitchell had to circumvent the all-male Harvard Yard in order to reach Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology, where she worked in the Radcliffe Zoological Laboratory.Mitchell was the first dean of women at the University of California at Berkeley, where she lectured in the English Department and promoted educational and career opportunities for women students from 1903–1912.
In 1916, influenced by the work of John Dewey, Mitchell founded the Bureau of Educational Experiments (BEE) in New York City to study and develop optimal learning environments for children.
The BEE evolved into the Bank Street College of Education.