From the founding of William Penn's "Holy Experiment" to present-day debates over curriculum reform and taxes, education has played a central role in the evolution of Pennsylvania society. Once viewed as essential to individual and social progress, the story of Education in Pennsylvania also reveals the fascinating and complex relationship between diverse peoples and cultures in the forging of Commonwealth history and identity.
Continue the Story...
Bring this subject into focus through the following chapters. These stories take exploration of the main story further by providing more detail for you to learn and explore.
Take your students back in history with these discussions and activities for the classroom
|
1681 |
Founding of Pennsylvania |
|
|
1682 |
William Penn arrives in Pennsylvania and issues his Frame of Government, which includes sections on schools and education |
|
|
1689 |
Penn establishes first Quaker school in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Quaker Meeting hires George Keith as schoolmaster to supervise local instruction |
|
|
1706 |
Mennonites erect one-story schoolhouses, mainstay of church-based education |
|
|
1727 |
William Tennent founds Log College in Bucks County that trains Presbyterian ministers and educators throughout colonies
|
|
|
1740 |
Founding of the Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia, (today's the University of Pennsylvania) |
|
|
1743 |
First Catholic parochial school in Pennsylvania established at Goshenhoppen, in Berks County. |
|
|
1745 |
American Philosophical Society founded in Philadelphia. |
|
|
1750 |
Moravians at Lititz establish Linden Hall, the oldest girls" boarding school in America; Anthony Benezet opens Pennsylvania's first school for enslaved African American children |
|
|
1751 |
University of Pennsylvania chartered, doors open the next year |
|
|
1782 |
Rev. John McMillan begins teaching in frontier log school in Canonsburg, Washington County; a foothold for Presbyterian education and mission work on the Pennsylvania frontier |
|
|
1783 |
Founding of Dickinson College chartered in Carlisle, the first college charted in the new United States; Treaty of Paris ends Revolutionary War |
|
|
1787 |
McMillan founds Washington Academy, Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
|
|
|
1801 |
Founding of the Society for the Establishment and Support of Charity Schools; the basis for public education for poor children in Philadelphia |
|
|
1805 |
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts opens |
|
|
1815 |
Allegheny College founded; old college west of Allegheny Mountains |
|
|
1818 |
Pennsylvania Legislature creates the School District of Philadelphia |
|
|
1820 |
Pennsylvania School for the Deaf opens. |
|
|
1834 |
Passage of Free Schools Act, which establishes a system of public schools in Pennsylvania |
|
|
1835 |
Thaddeus Stephens defends public common schools in state legislature |
|
|
1836 |
Publication of William Holmes McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader; founding of the Institute for Colored Youth (African Institute) in Philadelphia, to provide vocational and liberal arts education for black youth |
|
|
1844 |
Controversy over reading of the bible in Philadelphia schools leads to Anti-Catholic riots |
|
|
1848 |
Stephen Girard's will establishes Girard College, school for poor and orphan boys; Mexican War ends |
|
|
1849 |
Avery College (Pittsburgh) founded; short-lived liberal arts college dedicated to African Americans |
|
|
1850 |
Female Medical College chartered in Philadelphia; provides medical education for women |
|
|
1852 |
Pennsylvania State Teachers Association established in Lancaster; instrumental in passage of public-school reform |
|
|
1853 |
Franklin and Marshall Colleges merge in Lancaster |
|
|
1854 |
Lancaster County Normal School opens in Millersville; founding of the Ashmun Institute, (today's Lincoln University) in Chester County; Pennsylvania legislature passes law permitting schools districts with twenty or more black students to provide separate schools |
|
|
1855 |
Founding of the Pennsylvania Farmers" High School (today's Penn State University) |
|
|
1857 |
Passage of Normal School Act, major reform legislation that provides for publicly funded teacher training programs in Pennsylvania |
|
|
1859 |
Lancaster County Normal School (today's Millersville University) is named the first Pennsylvania State Normal School |
|
|
1865 |
Civil War ends; Lehigh University founded with emphasis on engineering and science |
|
|
1866 |
Ashmun Institute (1854) changes name to Lincoln University |
|
|
1878 |
Duquesne University established in Pittsburgh to offer Catholic education |
|
|
1879 |
Opening of the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, PA |
|
|
1880 |
Pennsylvania Oral School for the Deaf opens in Scranton |
|
|
1881 |
Pennsylvania legislature passes a law, widely ignored, outlawing school segregation |
|
|
1884 |
Temple University founded to serve working-class students in Philadelphia |
|
|
1885 |
Bryn Mawr College opens and soon becomes the nation's first all-female institution to offer graduate degrees |
|
|
1888 |
Desegregation of Pennsylvania public schools; results from major court case over discrimination in education |
|
|
1891 |
Thomas Foster founds the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, PA. |
|
|
1892 |
Pennsylvania Chautauqua opens as Mt. Gretna; part of national movement for civic education and entertainment |
|
|
1907 |
University of Pittsburgh chartered; provides state supported higher education in western Pennsylvania |
|
|
1912 |
Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indian School becomes an international sensation by running, jumping, and throwing his way to victory in the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon.
|
|
|
1912 |
Opening of the University of Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory; Jim Thorpe of the Carlisle Indian School becomes an international sensation by running, jumping, and throwing his way to victory in the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon. |
|
|
1914 |
Philadelphia School Superintendent Martin Brumbaugh becomes the first and only Ph.D. to win election as the Governor of Pennsylvania. |
|
|
1921 |
Edmonds Act reorganizes state public education system; Bryn Mawr opens Summer School for Women in Industry, a progressive economic education program for working women |
|
|
1923 |
John Dewey becomes director of education at the Barnes Foundation, a progressive school for art education, in Merion, PA. |
|
|
1928 |
State normal schools become teachers colleges able to grant four-year degrees as part of growing professionalization of educational standards |
|
|
1929 |
Stock market crash and onset of the Great Depression |
|
|
|
|
1960 |
Pennsylvania state teachers colleges adopt liberal-arts curriculum and expand their mission beyond teacher training |
|
|
1963 |
The Supreme Court bans compulsory Bible reading in public schools. |
|
|
1964 |
Rev. Leon Sullivan opens the first Opportunities Industrialization Center, in Philadelphia. |
|
|
1968 |
Girard College admits its first African American students, after federal court ruling and years civil-rights demonstrations in Philadelphia; Mister Rogers' Neighborhood debuts on WQED Public Television in Pittsburgh |
|
|
1972 |
Federal Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in public and higher education |
|
|
1982 |
Establishment of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education creates a common public university system from old teachers" colleges |
|
|
1990 |
Americans With Disabilities Act establishes educational rights and services for children with disabilities |
|
|
2001 |
No Child Left Behind Act establishes new academic benchmarks for disadvantaged students |
|
|
2005 |
Controversy over the teaching "intelligent design" in the Dover School District ends when a federal judge bars the teaching of "intelligent design" in Pennsylvania's Middle District public school science classrooms. |
|
|
2007 |
Pennsylvania voters reject Act 1 property tax and school funding reform; creating uncertainties in future school funding |
|
Historical Markers In the Story
Original Documents