The Commissioner of Education was the title given to the head of the federal Office of Education, which was historically a unit within the Department of the Interior in the United States. The position was created on March 2, 1867, when an Act to establish the Office of Education took effect.[1]
The Commissioner was the U.S. government's highest education official from 1867 until 1972, when the office of Assistant Secretary for Education was established within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.[1] Ultimately, the United States Secretary of Education became a Cabinet-level position in 1979.
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The Commissioner was responsible for:[2]
The Commissioner also served as an ex officio member of the District of Columbia Commission on Licensure, the Board of Foreign Scholarships and served as the governmental representative on the US National Commission for UNESCO.[3]
The independent federal Office of Education was created on March 2, 1867.[1] It became part of the Department of the Interior on July 1, 1889.[1] The office was included in the Interior Department's Federal Security Agency when it was established on July 1, 1939.[1] The office was moved into the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1953.[1]
In 1972, Public Law 92-318 provided the repeal of a part of the law which had created the office of Commissioner of Education. The repeal took effect on July 1, 1972. The Office of Education ceased to exist. Although the Assistant Secretary of Education then became the highest federal education position, the office of Commissioner of Education continued to exist in the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare until 1980, when the post was phased out due to the creation of the Cabinet-level Department of Education.[1][4]
| Commissioner | Term |
|---|---|
| Henry Barnard | March 11, 1867–1870 |
| John Eaton | 1870–1886 |
| Nathaniel H. R. Dawson | 1886–1889 |
| William T. Harris | 1889–1906 |
| Elmer E. Brown | 1906–1911 |
| Philander P. Claxton | 1911–1921 |
| John J. Tigert | 1921–1928 |
| William John Cooper | 1929–1933 |
| George F. Zook | 1933–1934 |
| John W. Studebaker | 1934–1948 |
| Earl James McGrath | 1949–1953 |
| Lee M. Thurston | 1953 - 1953 |
| Samuel Miller Brownell | 1953–1956 |
| Lawrence Gridley Derthick | 1956–1961 |
| Sterling M. McMurrin | 1961–1962 |
| Francis C. Keppel | 1962–1965 |
| Harold Howe II | 1965–1968 |
| James E. Allen, Jr. | 1969–1970 |
| Sidney P. Marland, Jr. | 1970–1973 |
| John R. Ottina | 1973–1974 |
| Terrel H. Bell | 1974–1976 |
| Edward Aguirre | 1976–1977 |
| Ernest L. Boyer | 1977–1979 |
| William L. Smith | 1980 - 1980 |
This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.