University of Chicago. College of Education.

The College of Education was an undergraduate teachers' college operating within the School of Education from 1901 to 1931.

The study of education at the University of Chicago began in 1895 with the organization of the Department of Pedagogy under head professor John Dewey. The Department offered methodological courses on academic subjects and theoretical seminars on the philosophy, science, and ethics of pedagogical practice. In 1896, a University Elementary School was established within the Department to serve as a workshop for classroom observation and the testing of educational method; known as the Dewey School or the Laboratory School, it attracted national attention and supported Dewey's growing reputation among progressive educators.

In 1901, the University created the School of Education through the acquisition and consolidation of three independent Chicago institutions. Two local secondary schools, the Chicago Manual Training School and the South Side Academy, were merged to form the University High School. The Chicago Institute, a private teachers' college founded by Anita McCormick Blaine in 1899, was incorporated as the College of Education. The Institute's elementary school, after a brief period of autonomy as the University Elementary School on the Blaine Foundation, was amalgamated with the University Elementary School and the University Kindergarten. Colonel Francis W. Parker, a veteran educational reformer and head of the Chicago Institute, was installed as Director of the School of Education, and his prot