In 1905, Andrew Carnegie established the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. His foremost aim, initially, was to improve the financial security of instructors. In 1907, he prodded the foundation to investigate the possibility of providing insurance for faculty members. A few years later the foundation began deep explorations of how a practical system of pensions for professors might be created. Carnegie’s efforts ultimately yielded one of the most important retirement and investment organizations in the world (see 1918 entry in Prosperity section).
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching also made other important contributions to education. It sparked the seminal modernization of American medical training. It produced ideas and research that helped the U.S. develop the best system of higher ed in the world. It created the Educational Testing Service, which continues to be the nation’s leading source of useful student exams.
- Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, carnegiefoundation.org
- Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, Private Power for the Public Good: A History of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Wesleyan, 1988)