Education, United States Office of
EDUCATION, UNITED STATES OFFICE OF
EDUCATION, UNITED STATES OFFICE OF. The United States Office of Education was established by Congress on 2 March 1867 as a division within the cabinet-level Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Designated at the time as an independent, subcabinet Department of Education and placed under the direction of scholar-statesman Henry Barnard, this unit functioned as an advisory council, a school advocate, and an information clearinghouse.
The name of the division changed to the Office of Education in 1869 when it was placed in the Department of the Interior. From 1870 to 1929, it was known as the Bureau of Education. From 1939 to 1953 it was located in the Federal Security Agency, and on 11 April 1953, it became a constituent division within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
In 1896 the department added to its annual reports on education in the United States and other countries bulletins and studies of educational developments. The combined publishing activity of the bureau and the Office of Education earned the widespread respect and admiration of the European education ministries, some of which—the British, for example—established similar bodies.
The Office of Education now administers federal participation in vocational education, grants and loans to state and local programs, and aid for the education of the disabled, among other functions, and its size and budget have grown along with its responsibilities. The independent National Institute of Education, established in 1972 within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, assumed the research functions of the office.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kursh, Harry. The United States Office of Education: A Century of Service. Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1965.
Warren, Donald R. To Enforce Education: A History of the Founding Years of the United States Office of Education. New York: Greenwood Press, 1985.
William W.Brickman/c. w.
See alsoDisabled, Education of the ; Education, Department of ; Education ; Interior, Department of the .