Department of Education Records

Collection

Identifier: RG 09-004

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The records of the Department of Education, 1909(1958-78)-1979, mainly document the department's administrative activities during its final twenty years of operation, especially its training and evaluation of student teachers. Records dating from the period prior to 1958 include one foot of correspondence files (1909-14) of Edward A. Miller (1866-1958), Professor and Head of the Department of Pedagogy (1903-07) and the first to hold the title Professor of Education (1907-31). These files introduce the issues of teacher training and state certification requirements, providing a historical context for later materials. Other records predating 1958 include student teacher evaluations prepared for Kindergarten-Primary majors (1933-63). These documents cover the period from the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School's merger with the Department of Education (1932) to the discontinuation of the Kindergarten-Primary major (1965). They are written largely by Professor J. Marie Rankin and offer a glimpse of primary pedagogy in the classroom over a thirty-year period.

The records, which consist of correspondence, minutes, annual reports, budgetary ledgers, printed materials, educational testing kits, and tape recordings, are divided into three subgroups: I. Administrative Files of the Department of Education, 1909-14, 1959-79; II. Teacher Education Files, 1933-78; and III. Professional Organizations, 1959-77. Within subgroups, the papers are subdivided into series alphabetically arranged to reflect internal hierarchies; thereunder, papers are arranged alphabetically or chronologically.

Two-thirds of the collection consists of Subgroup II, Teacher-Education Files. Series 1 includes the administrative files (1958-78) of the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program. Filed here is the Teacher Education Committee's 1958 recommendation to establish a M.A.T. program at Oberlin, as well as correspondence with the Ford Foundation, whose 1960 grant of 190,000 dollars made possible the program's first six years of operation. Other files include annual reports, minutes, budgetary records, and curriculum information. A more comprehensive record of M.A.T. program administrative history is available in the papers of former Professor of Education, Ira S. Steinberg (RG 30/111).

The bulk of Subgroup II is comprised of two series: Series 2, Student Records (1954-55, 1961-75), which contains M.A.T. student dossiers (1961-75), and Series 3, Student-Teaching Records (1933-78). The files of Series 3 document the instruction, evaluation, supervision, and certification of both undergraduate and M.A.T. student teachers. Extensive correspondence with nearby school districts concerns student-teacher placement, school collaboration with the M.A.T. program in general, and Project 419, a special state-funded program to improve curriculum in the Lorain Public Schools. Two identical educational kits (1937) may have been used by student teachers majoring in Kindergarten-Primary pedagogy or by majors in Child Development. Files also include materials relating to the state's evaluation of Oberlin's program of teacher education. A fuller account of the process of state evaluation is provided by the papers of Professor Ira S. Steinberg (RG 30/111). These records include correspondence that illuminates the relationship between Oberlin and the State Department of Education during the 1970s.

Files documenting the administrative history of the Department of Education are housed in Subgroup I, Administrative Files of the Department of Education, 1909-14, 1959-79. In addition to the early correspondence previously described, these files include significant administrative correspondence between faculty members relating to department business; with other departments and administrative offices; with students, regarding placement and academic progress; and with outside individuals and institutions. Key correspondents include Professors of Education and department chairmen Frank Laycock (1962-78) and Ira S. Steinberg (1961-78), and Assistant Professors Andreas Kazamias (1957-61), Charles Rathbone (1969-72) and Booker Peek (1971-78). Other administrative records are extremely sparse. Minutes of departmental meetings exist only for the years 1963-68 and 1969-73. One set of minutes only exists for years 1963-67. Additional minutes may be consulted in the papers of Ira S. Steinberg, but in general, minutes have not survived in quantity. Budgetary records are equally thin, with ledgers for the period 1962-68 showing department expenses, and a small group of miscellaneous papers relating to budget allocations in 1963 and 1973.

Subgroup III includes the files of national, state, and regional educational organizations with which the Department of Education staff was affiliated. Files document conference planning and meeting arrangements. The majority of the files relate to state organizations such as the Ohio Association of Private Colleges for Teacher Education.

Dates

Creation: 1909 - 1979
Creation: Majority of material found within 1958 - 1978
Other: Date acquired: 07/06/1967

Creator

Oberlin College Department of Education (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted.

Administrative History

In 1846, Education was recognized as a distinct field of study at Oberlin College when the Teacher's Department was added to the Collegiate, Theological, Female, and Preparatory departments of Oberlin Collegiate Institute (as Oberlin College was known until 1850). Prior to 1846, graduates of any department except the Preparatory qualified for teaching careers. The three-year Teacher's Course offered by the Teacher's Department embraced most of the studies pursued in the Collegiate Course but added courses related to teaching methods and management of schools. Although the Teacher's Department closed in 1864, a six-week Teachers' Institute, offering lectures on the theory and practice of teaching, was retained. In 1894, a two-year course in Physical Training for Women was begun which continued into the 1940s. Graduates of this program were primarily teachers.

In 1896-97, the first course in Pedagogy was taught in the Philosophy Department by Stone Professor of Philosophy Henry Churchill King (1858-1934). The following year, the Department of Philosophy and Pedagogy was created, with faculty members King and newly appointed Associate Professor Simon Fraser MacLennan (1897-1900) sharing teaching responsibilities. With the promotion of MacLennan in 1900 to Professor of Philosophy and King's selection in 1902 as President of Oberlin, the need arose for a full-time Professor of Pedagogy. Accordingly, in 1903, Edward Alanson Miller (1866-1958, A.B. 1889), Superintendent of Oberlin Public Schools, was appointed head of the newly formed Department of Pedagogy. He served until 1931, presiding over significant changes in the teacher education curriculum.

The first reference to instruction in Education occurs in the Catalogue of Oberlin College for 1907-08. The undergraduate major in the field was offered at Oberlin from 1911 until academic year 1961-62. Students pursuing the major frequently went on to do graduate work in Education or related fields. When the Department of Education purchased the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School in 1932, the Kindergarten-Primary major became available. This major was offered until academic year 1964-65, when it was replaced by the two-year Elementary Master's in Teaching program. The Child Development major was added in 1946 to prepare students to work with children in fields other than teaching. Child Development and Kindergarten pedagogy courses were taught by Professor J. Marie Rankin (1896-1991) from 1933 to 1962 and Associate Professor Mary S. Yocom (1894-1968) from 1923 to 1958.

Undergraduates who wished teaching careers complied with a state law enacted in 1913 authorizing certification of graduates of approved institutions who had met certain professional requirements. Oberlin was recognized as an "approved" institution in December 1914. Original practice-teaching requirements had been three semester hours, but these gradually increased. To accomodate the increased practice teaching load of undergraduates, the department initiated in 1929 a five-year program leading to the A.M. degree in education. The program was discontinued in 1936-37, as not more than a dozen students ever took this program and received a degree.

In June 1960, with a grant from the Ford Foundation, the Oberlin Master of Arts in Teaching Program began preparing liberal arts graduates for careers in secondary school teaching. The program, which extended over a summer session and one full academic year, emphasized advanced work in the student's major and related fields, courses in the field of education, and practice teaching in the form of a semester-long paid internship in a cooperating public school system. By 1970, owing to competition for students, the draft, and decreases in federal funding, it had become more difficult to attract applicants to the M.A.T. programs. In March 1971, the Educational Plans and Policies Committee voted to suspend both M.A.T. programs and requested immediate study of the teaching of education at Oberlin.

During the 1970s, the offerings of the Department of Education were designed to serve those interested in the liberal study of Education and those desiring secondary school teaching certification. Students desiring certification majored in the subject fields they planned to teach. Following the 1977 visit by the State Department of Education to Oberlin, new standards regulating student teaching were introduced. These included 300 hours of practice teaching. Rather than comply with standards, which would have required students to teach full-time for one semester, Professor of Education Ira S. Steinberg (b. 1933) recommended in April 1978 that the College Faculty Council discontinue the department and its certification program. The department became the short-lived "Program in Education," which was terminated in 1980. Education Department professors Frank Laycock (b. 1922), Booker Peek (b. 1940), and Ira S. Steinberg were transferred to the departments of Psychology, Black Studies, and Philosophy, respectively.

Note written by Valerie S. Komor.

Extent

18.20 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

The papers of the Department of Education were transferred to the College archives in three accessions in 1967, 1977, and 1980. Materials arriving in 1980 were received from Ira S. Steinberg.

Accruals and Additions

Accession Nos: 12, 1977/34, 1980/2.

Related Materials

For supplemental material on the Department of Education, the researcher is advised to consult the papers of Professor of Education (1961-78) Ira S. Steinberg, Record Group 30/111. For the records of the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School, consult Record Group 24 and the Mary S. Yocom Papers, 30/79. For additional correspondence relating to the Kyrias Girls School in Albania, consult the records of the Graduate School of Theology, Record Group 11.