Commissioner of Education

The Commissioner of Education was the title given to the head of the National Bureau of Education, a former unit within the Department of the Interior in the United States. The position was created on March 2, 1867 when an Act to establish a department of education took effect.

The Commissioner was responsible for:^[1]

• Formulating educational policy
• Administering the various functions of the Office of Education
• Coordinating educational activities at the national level

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.^[2]

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. The 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 and the Commissioner was supplanted by the Secretary of Education.^[3]

List of Commissioners of Education

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

References

1. ^ Knezevich, Stephen J. (1969), Administration of Public Education (2 ed.), New York: Harper & Row, p. 237, OCLC 12690 
2. ^ Knezevich, Stephen J. (1969), Administration of Public Education (2 ed.), New York: Harper & Row, p. 238, OCLC 12690 
3. ^ "Education", The Encyclopedia Americana, 9, Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, 2000, p. 740, OCLC 43838093 

This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.