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Inventory of the Department of Education Records
F3752  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Agency History
  • Scope and Content
  • Indexing Terms
  • Related Material at the California State Archives

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Department of Education Records
    Inventory: F3752
    Creator: Department of Education

    Extent: 110 boxes
    Repository: California State Archives
    Sacramento, California
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the California State Archives. Permission for reproduction or publication is given on behalf of the California State Archives as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility for possible infringement which may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives collections.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Department of Education Records, F[number]:[folder number], California State Archives, Secretary of State Office, Sacramento, California.

    Agency History

    California's 1849 Constitution provided for the election of a state Superintendent of Public Instruction and for a system of common schools. Supervision of California's educational system was carried out by the State Board of Education with the Superintendent of Public Instruction acting as its executive officer. The first foundations of a State Department of Education were laid in 1913 when the Legislature provided for the appointment of three commissioners (in elementary, secondary, and vocational education) to assist the Superintendent ( Stats. 1913, ch. 694). An official Department of Education was created by law in 1921 succeeding to the powers and duties of the State Board of Education ( Stats. 1921, ch. 605). The State Board continued on as a governing body with the Superintendent acting as Director of Education. Initially the Department included Divisions of Elementary Schools, Secondary Schools, Physical Education, Normal and Special Schools, Immigrant Education, Statistics, Credentials, Attendance, and a Legal Division.
    As a result of two studies commissioned by the Legislature, the Mills Report of 1944 and the Strayer Report of 1945, the Department carried out a major reorganization consolidating twenty-two divisions into six: Divisions of Departmental Administration, Special Schools and Services, Instruction, Libraries, Public School Administration, and State Colleges and Teacher Education.
    The Department's activities greatly expanded as federal appropriations increased with the passage of the National Defense Education Act of 1958 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The California State Legislature appropriated more funds for new education programs with the Miller-Unruh Basic Reading Act of 1965, the McAteer Act of 1963, S.B. 1302 of 1972 (early childhood education), and the Bilingual Education Act of 1972.
    In 1972 the Department attempted an innovative reorganization, the Education Program Matrix, to improve service to local education agencies, to coordinate the Department's various educational programs, and to improve departmental communications. (See EDUCATION PROGRAM MATRIX.) The Matrix was dissolved in 1975 and replaced by Education Program Management.

    Scope and Content

    The first California State Constitution required the State Legislature to provide for the election of a Superintendent of Public Instruction by the people ( Const. 1849, Art. IX, Sec. I). In 1851 the Legislature passed a law which provided for the Superintendent's election and which described his powers and duties ( Stats. 1851, ch. 126). In 1852 the Superintendent was designated a member of the State Board of Education to act as the Board's secretary and executive officer ( Stats. 1852, ch. 53). The law creating the State Department of Education included a section to make the Superintendent of Public Instruction the Director of Education and vested in him all the executive and administrative functions of the Department.
    In addition to his duties in connection with the State Board and the State Department, the Superintendent also serves as an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees of the California State Colleges and Universities, and of the Regents of the University of California. He also serves as an ex-officio member and advisor on educational matters to various boards, commissions, and councils, e.g., the California Commission on the Status of Women, the State Teacher's Retirement Boards, and the Board of Governors of the California Maritime Academy.
    The records include the administrations of Vierling Kersey (1929-37), Walter Dexter (1937-45), Roy Simpson (1945-63), Max Rafferty (1963-70), and Wilson Riles (1971-82).
    Vierling Kersey was an appointee to the vacant office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction by Governor Young. Assuming office on Feb. 11, 1929, Kersey was re-elected in 1930 and 1934, but in turn resigned in 1935 to become County Superintendent of Schools in Los Angeles County. A native of Los Angeles, Kersey graduated from Los Angeles Normal School (later known as the University of California at Los Angeles), later receiving a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Southern California. From teaching, holding principalships and directorships of Continuation Education in various schools, he advanced to the State Superintendency.
    Governor Frank Merriam appointed Walter F. Dexter in 1937 to replace Kersey. Re-elected in 1938 and 1942, Dexter died in office on October 21, 1945. Born in Chicago, Dexter as a child moved with his parents to a farm in Iowa. With a B.A. from Penn College and an M.A. from Columbia University, he then earned a masters and a doctorate in education at Harvard. After teaching a few years at Earlham College, Franklin College, and the University of Virginia, Dexter came to California as president of Whittier College and served in that capacity for eleven years. At the time of his appointment as Superintendent of Public Instruction, he was Governor Merriam's executive secretary.
    On November 6, 1945, Governor Earl Warren appointed Roy Simpson as Dexter's successor. Re-elected every four years until his retirement in 1963, Simpson holds the record for the longest tenure as Superintendent. Simpson was born in Santa Rosa, California in 1893. After graduating from Claremont College, he served as a sargeant in the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1919. On his return from the service, he held positions as a teacher, principal, district superintendent, and city superintendent before his appointment by Governor Warren.
    Max Rafferty was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1962 and was re-elected in 1966. Born in New Orleans in 1917, he moved to California in 1931. After graduation from Beverly Hills High School, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles where he received his B.A. in 1938. He served as a public school teacher, vice-pricipal, principal, and district superintendent before his election to state office. He also earned two graduate degrees: an M.A. from U.C.L.A. and a doctorate from U.S.C. Dr. Rafferty was defeated for re-election by Wilson Riles in 1970.
    Wilson Riles was elected in 1970 and re-elected in 1974 and 1978. Riles was born near Alexandria, Louisiana in 1917. Moving with his foster parents to Arizona in 1936, he entered Arizona State University in Flagstaff where he received his B.A. in 1940. After teaching for three years and serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps for two years, Riles re-entered college earning an M.A. in school administration. He taught and was a school administrator before coming to California in 1954 as a Regional Secretary of Fellowship of Reconciliation, a religious organization. Riles joined the Department of Education in 1958 as an educational consultant. In 1965 he was appointed as Associate Superintendent in charge of the Compensatory Education and in 1969 he advanced to Deputy Superintendent. Wilson Riles was defeated in his bid for re-election by L. Bill Honig in 1982.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    California. Dept. of Education
    Education policy and development
    Educational administration and organization

    Related Material at the California State Archives

    Board of Education Records