A Century of Leading and Learning
By Julie Deardorff
As one of the first students in Northwestern University’s newly established School of Education, Bernice Boye (BS27, MS32) chose from such classes as The Measurement of Intelligence and The High School Curriculum. It was 1926 as the fledgling school, still part of the College of Liberal Arts, prepared undergraduates to teach in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools.
But the School of Education would quickly evolve into a standalone college that does much more than train teachers for the classroom. It grew exponentially in both size and vision during the 1930s and ’40s, becoming one of the top private schools of education in the nation. By the 1970s, it had expanded well beyond its traditional mission and had become known for interdisciplinary study, research, and learning in nonschool settings.
That expansion became official in 1986, when the trustees voted to add “Social Policy” to the school’s name and mission, reflecting the understanding that learning happens everywhere—in homes, communities, and workplaces—and throughout life.
“It’s clear that some of our major societal problems can no longer be addressed within the old framework of education,” said then dean David Wiley in a 1987 Northwestern Observer article. “The social policy in our name indicates our interest in formulating change in education, [in] people who will develop goals and try to accomplish them. Our research is carried out with the intention of making definite improvements in society.”
In addition to education experts, the School of Education and Social Policy became home to developmental, cognitive, and social psychologists; sociologists; economists; political scientists; historians; and computer scientists—all working together to build a deeper understanding of how people learn and how policy affects the real world. In the 1990s, SESP’s faculty members began winning prestigious awards and recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, and the American Educational Research Association.
“SESP was ahead of its time in stepping outside the traditional mold of ‘professional’ schools of education,” wrote historian Bruce Colwell (PhD88) in a history of the school. Addressing challenging problems with two innovative doctoral programs—Human Development and Social Policy, and Learning Sciences—“recognized that educational issues involve social, economic, and developmental considerations.”
At the same time, SESP has remained true to its Progressive Era roots of training educators, centering children, and connecting with the community. Yet it has evolved into an interdisciplinary hub where scholars and students study the growing influence of technology on how people learn and the ways policy can expand opportunity.
Boye, who died in 2002 at age 97, would likely be fascinated by the modern version of The High School Curriculum course. After Northwestern, she spent 46 years working in Chicago as an elementary, high school, and college teacher, principal, and school superintendent. Now called The History and Evolution of the Modern High School and taught by professor Simone Ispa-Landa, the course covers how schools changed in response to major social forces, including industrialization, immigration, racial segregation, suburbanization, and ever-shifting legal landscapes.
Though the emphasis on policy is different, Boye would recognize the type of students who are drawn to SESP: learners and leaders who want to make a difference as teachers, judges, CEOs, counselors, lawyers, businesspeople, public servants—or whatever path they choose.
School of Education and Social Policy Timeline
1851: Northwestern University is founded; Old College is its first building.
1888: Northwestern offers education courses for the first time.
1906: Northwestern’s Department of Education is founded in the College of Liberal Arts.
1926: The School of Education is established, housed inside Old College, which becomes the Education Building. John Stout is named the school’s first dean.
1927: The bachelor of science in education degree is first conferred, on 14 students.
1941: The school’s first research doctorate degree program is offered. Originally in the School of Education, the music and speech education programs move to their respective Northwestern schools.
1953–63: The school begins to expand as a traditional school of education. More faculty are hired, and programs in home economics, health, and gifted education are added. A master of arts in teaching is added in 1961.
1963–78: Under dean B. J. Chandler, the Tutorial Clinical Program replaces traditional lecture-style methods courses to make teacher training more relevant to students. Upward Bound brings inner-city high school students to campus each summer.
1969: The Center for the Teaching Professions, designed for anyone who teaches—not just those in schools, is established with a $2.8 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation and directed by professor B. Claude Mathis.
1972: In what turns out to be excellent timing (see below) the School of Education moves from Old College to Andersen Hall.
1973: Old College—built as a temporary structure but somehow still standing after more than a century—is struck by lightning and razed after the sprinkler system floods the building.
1979–92: Dean David Wiley begins establishing programs that resemble today’s structure, with undergraduate concentrations in human development and social policy, teacher education, administrative and policy studies, and counseling psychology.
1981: The Human Development and Social Policy doctoral program is founded by psychologist Bernice L. Neugarten. The groundbreaking program highlights the contributions of psychology, sociology, and economics toward understanding human development across the lifespan and how life is shaped by policies and institutions.
1982: A new master of science program is created to prepare teachers and administrators for elementary and secondary schools—the first graduate degree fully administered by the School of Education rather than the Graduate School. The Midwest Talent Search is created by professor and associate dean Joyce VanTassel-Baska. The program, which later becomes the Center for Talent Development, initially offers above-grade testing for talent identification; educational enrichment and acceleration programs are added soon after.
1986: The School of Education is renamed the School of Education and Social Policy, reflecting a broader mission and the importance of connecting policy with education, family, work, and community.
1991 The world’s first learning sciences doctoral program, which grew out of Northwestern’s Institute for the Learning Sciences, accepts its inaugural cohort.
1992: Allan Collins becomes the first SESP faculty member elected to the National Academy of Education. SESP now has 18 members.
1993: The school moves into the newly constructed Annenberg Hall.
1997: Penelope Peterson becomes the first woman to assume the deanship. She leads for a record two decades, helping the school strengthen its identity as an interdisciplinary, research-driven institution.
1999: The Tarry Center opens in Annenberg Hall, giving students a stunning lakefront view, increasing space by more than 25 percent, and opening two cutting-edge teaching and learning studios that become models for classroom design.
2000: Professor Dan Lewis designs the Certificate in Civic Engagement with Robert Donahue, laying the groundwork for the Center for Civic Engagement. Lewis directs the center for more than a decade; Donahue is the current director.
2002: The Master’s of Learning and Organizational Change program becomes a standalone degree program, designed to prepare leaders seeking to improve organizations. U.S. News & World Report ranks the school among the nation’s top 10 graduate schools of education for the first time, a distinction SESP has earned 21 times since.
2011: The Higher Education Administration and Policy concentration becomes a standalone master’s degree program.
2012: Northwestern and SESP establish a partnership office at Evanston Township High School to connect University resources and expertise with the local community.
2013: Dean Peterson teaches the first Learning Philanthropy course, in which students are given $100,000 to distribute to actual nonprofit organizations.
2016: SESP launches the nation’s first joint learning sciences and computer science doctoral program. The undergraduate program in learning sciences admits its first students.
2021: The dual-degree Master’s in Applied Economics and Social and Economic Policy program, a joint program with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, enrolls its first cohort.
2023: Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy is named dean. An anthropologist of education, Brayboy is the first Native American dean in the history of Northwestern.
2024: The school receives a $1 million gift from the Kapor Foundation to establish the Center for Responsible Technology, Policy, and Public Dialogue.
2025: The new Master’s in Technology, People, and Policy program is launched. It examines how new technologies influence ethics, law, the environment, people, and public policy.
2026: SESP is ranked the No. 2 graduate school of education by U.S. News & World Report, the school’s highest ranking ever. The school moves into the newly renovated 2001 Sheridan Road building.