1888
Marion Scott, principal of Fort Street School, begins offering informal classes in pedagogy for teachers.
1895
Fort Street School becomes Honolulu High School, located in Princess Ruth’s former mansion (now Central Intermediate School). James Dumas from Oswego Normal School in New York is hired to head the school’s new teacher training department.
1896
The teacher training department and the high school are separated. Honolulu High School is renamed Honolulu Training School and moves to a small building on the grounds of Royal School. The teacher training department moves to Victoria and Young Streets and is renamed Honolulu Normal and Training School, a part of the Department of Public Instruction.
1897
Edgar Wood is named principal of the Honolulu Normal and Training School
1899
Castle Memorial Kindergarten is founded at King Street near Kawaiaha‘o Church as a site to implement and demonstrate John Dewey’s progressive ideas.
1905
Honolulu Normal and Training School is renamed Territorial Normal and Training School and moves to Lunalilo and Quarry Streets, where it would remain until 1931.
1907
The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is founded as a land-grant college in temporary quarters near Thomas Square. Castle Memorial Kindergarten becomes part of the college.
1912
The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is renamed College of Hawai‘i and relocated to its first permanent building in Mānoa Valley, now known as Hawai‘i Hall.
1920
The College of Hawai‘i becomes the University of Hawai‘i with the addition of the College of Arts and Sciences.
1921
Benjamin Wist (later Dean of Teachers College) succeeds Edgar Wood as principal of the Territorial Normal and Training School. Wist is credited with raising standards of admission, establishing differentiated curriculum, developing in-service media, and working to achieve degree-granting privileges.
The University of Hawai‘i established the Department of Secondary Education in the College of Arts and Sciences in response to the 1920 Federal Survey of Education, which recommended that the University assume responsibility for training high school teachers. Professional course work is initiated under the direction of Dr. Percival Symonds, who introduces the idea of pre- service as well as in-service courses.
1925
Dr. Thayne Livesay becomes director of the Department of Secondary Education and establishes a prescribed curriculum for preparing high school teachers that includes practice teaching.
1930
A new Normal School Building is constructed by the Territorial Department of Public Instruction on a 15-acre site of the former pig farm at University Avenue and Metcalf Street, adjoining the University of Hawai‘i. The Normal School Building houses faculty and elementary students and a new site for teacher preparation.
The University’s Department of Secondary Education becomes the School of Education.
1931
Charles A. Prosser report recommends cutting back on the expansion of college prepared secondary teachers and university opportunities for youth in favor of agriculture and vocational education. Also recommended absorbing the Normal School into the University.
The Territorial Legislature transfers the Territorial Normal and Training School from the Territorial Department of Public Instruction to the University of Hawai‘i, including the land, Normal School Building, faculty and students.
Territorial Normal and Training School is merged with the University of Hawai‘i’s School of Education creating the Teachers College. Benjamin Wist is appointed as the first Dean.
The Founders Gate is built across University Avenue symbolically uniting the two campuses.
1930s
Teachers College is composed of two schools: the School of Elementary Education (K–8) and the School of Secondary Education (9–12). By 1935 all students are enrolled in a five-year program leading to a BEd plus a “fifth-year diploma.”
1934
Ninety-six graduates make up the first Teachers College graduating class.
1936
Teachers College offers its first MEd degree.
University Elementary School is built on Metcalf Street as part of Teachers College at a cost of
$57,069. UES houses classes for grades 1 to 6. Grades 7 and 8 are housed in the Teachers College Building.
1939
Castle Memorial Hall is completed at a cost of $100,000 as a training center for kindergarten and nursery school teachers. Funding provided by a $300,000 gift from the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation to Teachers College.
1941–1945
Punahou School, displaced by the military occupying its campus, moves into Castle Memorial Hall and other buildings, but Teachers College continues to operate.
1943
University High School Building 1, on the Metcalf Street side of Teachers College, is completed as an intermediate school at a cost of $88,618. UHS 1 was the only building built on the UH campus during World War II.
1946
Hubert Everly (later Dean of the College of Education) becomes principal of the high school with a charge to expand to K–12.
1948
Bruce White succeeds Benjamin Wist as the second Dean of Teachers College. White encourages “creative” teaching and is responsible for securing federal grants to finance an experimental Auxiliary Teacher Training program, which prepares graduates in fields such as social work to become teachers.
University High School Building 2 is constructed adjacent to Building 1, the first built on the UH campus after World War II. The schools (elementary, intermediate, and high) now offer a complete K–12 curriculum on campus.
1951
Teachers College Building is renamed Wist Hall by the Board of Regents in honor of Benjamin Wist who served as Dean of Teachers College for seventeen years, as well as a Regent after his retirement. The first class graduates from University High School.
1956
Hubert Everly becomes Dean of Teachers College and is an outstanding proponent of public education at the Territorial and later State Legislatures. Everly reorganizes the college into departments and organizes the faculty senate to act as a policy making body. There is a gradual shift to research and development.
1957
University High School Building 3 is completed at a cost of $327,000, the first permanent concrete structure added to COE since 1931.
1959
Teachers College becomes the College of Education, and Hawai‘i becomes the fiftieth state.
1961
Dean Everly creates Educational Research & Development (EDRAD) unit within the College. COE faculty researchers worked in the laboratory schools.
1963
Wist Annex 2, adjacent to Wist Hall, and the Multipurpose Building, adjacent to the ETV station (originally part of the College of Education), are constructed on the COE campus.
1965
The Hawai‘i State Legislature commissions a comprehensive review of education programs to prepare teachers, including the function and role of the laboratory schools. The results of the review would be published the following year with the title Preparation of Teachers and other Educational Personnel in Hawai‘i and would become known as the “Stiles Report.”
1966
Following the recommendation of the Stiles Report, the College of Education undergoes a major reorganization. The departments of Curriculum and Instruction; Educational Administration; Educational Foundations; Educational Communications and Technology; Educational Psychology; Counseling and Guidance; Health, Physical Education, and Recreation; and Special Education and the Divisions of Field Services and Student Services are created.
The role and function of the laboratory schools changes from demonstration and teacher training to research and innovation, fulfilling Dean Everly’s vision of laboratory schools research and development centers. The intern program is dropped and the college becomes an upper division college.
Result was reduction in K–12 student population freeing half the faculty positions (and budget) for R&D under a joint HIDOE, COE, Liberal Arts faculty effort unit called the Hawai‘i Curriculum Center (HCC) created by Dean Everly as an organized research unit. HCC combines faculty assigned from the Hawai‘i Department of Education (HIDOE) and from the College.
Arthur R. King, faculty member with EDRAD was selected as Director along with Bill Savard (HIDOE) as co-directors.
The first doctorate in education (PhD) degree is offered in Educational Psychology.
1969
Hawai‘i Curriculum Center is dissolved following HIDOE withdrawal of assigned faculty. The unit is renamed the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG) and charged to develop curriculum and materials for schools. Arthur R. King becomes director of CRDG. The elementary, intermediate, and high schools are combined and renamed University Laboratory School (ULS). ULS becomes an R&D site within CRDG.
1977
The first doctorate in education (EdD) degree is offered.
1980
Andrew In, former teacher and principal of ULS and Associate Dean of the College, becomes Dean of the College of Education.
1986
John Dolly becomes Dean of the College of Education following Interim Deans Peter Dunn-Rankin and Daniel Blaine. John Dolly served as Dean until his resignation in 1995.
1988
The Center on Disability Studies, a charter member of a National Network of University Centers and the Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD), is established as the Hawai‘i University Affiliated Program.
1990
Under the leadership of Dean John Dolly plans for a new education complex to be shared with ULS were developed and ultimately approved for construction.
Hawai‘i State Legislature approved funding for planning and construction of a new College of Education building to be constructed on the present site of University High School Bldgs 1 & 2.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in December for construction of a 180,000 sf education building to be completed at a cost of $11.5 M.
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| Rendition of College of Education building facing Metcalf St. | Governor Waihee and President Mortimer at ground breaking |
1994
Governor Cayetano cancels $11.5 M project citing state budget shortfall.
1998
Randy Hitz becomes Dean of the College of Education following Interim Dean Charles Araki.
2001
The University Laboratory School (ULS) becomes a K-12 charter school after UH funding for operating the school is withdrawn from the College of Education. CRDG continues to operate the school as a laboratory for curriculum R&D in collaboration with the charter school board.
2006
Wist Annex 2 is renamed Everly Hall by the Board of Regents in honor of Hubert Everly, who served as Dean for twenty-three years.
Fire destroyed the 20,000 sf University Elementary School (UES) building built in 1936. UES housed 14 offices for Institute for Teacher Education (ITE) faculty, a pre-service teacher education classroom, offices for the Center on Disability Studies, Hawai‘i Institute for Educational Partnerships, Hawai‘i Educational Policy Center, and ULS classrooms for drama, theater, orchestra, chorus, and weightlifting. Faculty and students were relocated to other emergency locations;
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| University Elementary School | University Elementary School fire June 13, 2006 |
2007
Laboratory School Portable buildings 1, 2, 3, and 4 installed on the former UES site.
Christine Sorensen becomes Dean of the College of Education following Interim Dean Donald Young.
2009
ULS employees transitioned from being University employees to public school teachers and government employees. Separates from CRDG and operates independently under its own charter school governing board. The ULS-COE R&D collaboration continues through an Affiliation Agreement. In and through these transitions from teacher training ground to public charter-laboratory school, the school continues to both serve its students by providing a high quality educational environment and program, and as a laboratory for improving learning, teaching and assessment.
2012
WASC Accrediting Commission granted ULS initial accreditation as a K-12 institution.
Donald Young, formerly Director of the Curriculum Research & Development Group, becomes the new Dean of the College of Education. Kathleen Berg is appointed director of CRDG, having served as associate director since 2003.
2016
In 2016 through the efforts of University Laboratory School, the COE received the FROGs via the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute with funding from the Office of Naval Research. FROG installation completed; occupancy Fall 2016
Flexible Response to Ongoing Growth (FROG) Energy Research & Classroom Instruction
2017
Donald Young retires in December 2017 after a 46 year career with the University of Hawai‘i. The University begins searching for a new dean to head the College of Education. In that same year, Paul Brandon retires as director of CRDG.
2018
The University is successful in their search for a new dean and Dr. Nathan Murata is appointed on January 1, 2018 as the new Dean of the College of Education. Dean Murata moves to this new position from his previous role as a professor and graduate chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Science.
University Lab School * University High School * Junior Bows Alumni * Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 