The Commissioner of Education was the title given to the head of the National Bureau of Education

Bureau of Education (National)

The Office of Education was a small unit in the General Government of the United States. It was created on March 2, 1867, as the Department of Education, using the same titles as another unit which it superseded. Henry Barnard was appointed as the first Commissioner of Education in 1867. During...

, a former unit within the Department of the Interior

United States Department of the Interior

The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The position was created on March 2, 1867 when an Act

Act of Congress

An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by government with a legislature named "Congress," such as the United States Congress or the Congress of the Philippines....

 to establish a department of education took effect.

The Commissioner was responsible for:

• Formulating educational policy
• Administering the various functions of the Office of Education
• Coordinating educational activities at the national level

The Commissioner also served as an ex officio member of the District of Columbia Commission on Licensure, the Board of Foreign Scholarships and served as the governmental representative on the US National Commission for UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

.

In 1972, Public Law

Act of Congress

An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by government with a legislature named "Congress," such as the United States Congress or the Congress of the Philippines....

 92-318 provided the repeal of a part of the law which had created the office of Commissioner of Education. The repeal took effect on July 1, 1972. The Office of Education ceased to exist. The Commissioner of Education continued to exist in the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare until 1980, when the post was phased out due to the creation of the Cabinet-level Department of Education

United States Department of Education

The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...

 and the Commissioner was supplanted by the Secretary of Education

United States Secretary of Education

The United States Secretary of Education is the head of the Department of Education. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet, and 16th in line of United States presidential line of succession...

.

List of Commissioners of Education

Commissioner	Term
Henry Barnard Henry Barnard Henry Barnard was an American educationalist and reformer.-Biography:...	March 11, 1867–1870
John Eaton John Eaton (General) For other people named John Eaton, see John Eaton .John Eaton, Jr. was a U.S. Commissioner of Education and a brevet brigadier general during the American Civil War.-Early life:...	1870–1886
Nathaniel H. R. Dawson	1886–1889
William T. Harris William Torrey Harris William Torrey Harris was an American educator, philosopher, and lexicographer.-Early life and career:Born in North Killingly, Connecticut, he attended Phillips Andover Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. He completed two years at Yale, then moved west and taught school in St...	1889–1906
Elmer E. Brown Elmer Ellsworth Brown Elmer Ellsworth Brown was an American educator. Born at Kiantone in Chautauqua County, New York, he studied at New York University, graduated from Illinois State Normal University in 1881 and at the University of Michigan ; then he studied in Germany and received a Ph.D. in 1890. He was principal...	1906–1911
Philander P. Claxton	1911–1921
John J. Tigert John J. Tigert John James Tigert, IV was an American university president, university professor and administrator, college sports coach and the U.S. Commissioner of Education. Tigert was a native of Tennessee and the son and grandson of Methodist bishops...	1921–1928
William John Cooper William John Cooper William John Cooper was an American educator who served as US Commissioner of Education from February 1929 to July 1933. According to the New York Times: "His fundamental theory of education, which he often repeated, was that the ultimate goal of teaching should be, not how to make a living, but...	1929–1933
George F. Zook George F. Zook George Frederick Zook was an American educator who was President of the University of Akron, U.S. Commissioner of Education, and President of the American Council on Education....	1933–1934
John W. Studebaker John Ward Studebaker John Ward Studebaker served as U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1934 to 1948. He was also Chairman of the U.S. Radio Education Committee. His was the longest tenure of any education commissioner, and he devoted much of his time to children's literacy and arithmetic.Studebaker was born in Iowa...	1934–1948
Earl James McGrath	1949–1953
Lee M. Thurston	1953 - 1953
Samuel Miller Brownell	1953–1956
Lawrence Gridley Derthick	1956–1961
Sterling M. McMurrin Sterling M. McMurrin Sterling Moss McMurrin was an unconventional Mormon theologian and Philosophy professor at the University of Utah. He served as United States Commissioner of Education in the administration of President John F. Kennedy-External links:******]]** by Peggy Fletcher Stack, Salt Lake Tribune, February...	1961–1962
Francis C. Keppel Francis Keppel Francis Keppel was an American educator. As U.S. Commissioner of Education he was instrumental in developing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and in overseeing enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the schools. In 1966, he became head of the General Learning Corporation...	1962–1965
Harold Howe II	1965–1968
James E. Allen, Jr. James E. Allen, Jr. James Edward Allen, Jr. was the Commissioner of Education of the State of New York from 1955 to 1969 and served briefly as Richard Nixon's Commissioner of Education. He ordered New York school boards to comply with the 1962 U. S...	1969–1970
Sidney P. Marland, Jr.	1970–1973
John R. Ottina	1973–1974
Terrel H. Bell Terrel Bell Terrel Howard Bell was the Secretary of Education in the Cabinet of President Ronald Reagan.-Early life and career:...	1974–1976
Edward Aguirre	1976–1977
Ernest L. Boyer Ernest L. Boyer Ernest Leroy Boyer was an American educator who most notably served as Chancellor of the State University of New York, United States Commissioner of Education, and President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching...	1977–1979
William L. Smith	1980 - 1980