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A TIME LINE OF COLONIAL AMERICAN EDUCATION

Click on each of the years on the timeline below to read about an education milestone associated with that year :

• 1635:
  The Puritans establish Roxbury Latin School, the first formal school in the colonies, in Boston. (Back To The Top)

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 1636:
  The Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes Harvard University, the first American College, in Cambridge. (Back To The Top)

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 1642:
  The Massachusetts Bay Colony enacts the Law of 1642, requiring parents and apprentice masters to train children to read and to know the principles of religion and the laws of the commonwealth. (Back To The Top)

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 1647:
  The Massachusetts Bay Colony enacts the Old Deluder Satan Act, requiring towns with 50 families to have a teacher to teach reading and writing and towns with 100 families to establish a grammar school. (Back To The Top)

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 1683:
  Pennsylvania enacts a law requiring that all children be taught to read and write by age 12 and be trained in a useful trade or skill. In Pennsylvania, the first school was established in. (Back To The Top)

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• 1683:
  The Quaker Friends Public School was established in Pennsylvania. (Back To The Top)