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University of Texas University of Texas Libraries

Educational Leadership & Policy Research

Research support for ELP graduate students and faculty.

Educational History

Finding Educational History Research

ERIC  Articles from education journals. Try adding "educational history" OR "history of education" to your search terms.

America: History and Life  Articles from history journals

Google Books  If a books isn't fully available online, check our Library Catalog to see if we own a copy.  If not, make an Interlibrary Loan request or a purchase recommendation.

UT Library Catalog  Educational history as published in books.

Primary Sources in K-12 Education

Austin American Statesman (1871-1975) Search the Statesman newspaper archives to find articles about local issues related to schools and education.

Austin History Center has preserved many documents, reports and articles related to AISD. Search their catalog, review the Public Schools Resource Guide, browse their Manuscript Index or scan their Vertical File Holdings to locate documents of interest.  Also, take the time to email their reference librarians, especially if you plan to visit.  That will save you both time!

AISD Open Records RequestsAustin ISD doesn't keep an online archive of publications. To acquire historic reports and data, you'll need to reach out to the school district. Using the linked form is advised.

Archived TEA websites  The Wayback Machine captured copies of the TEA website over time. On some captures, you can browse to subpages for more details, reports, policy, data, etc..

Dallas Morning News  Newspaper archive. Covers 1885 to 1984.

Houston Chronicle Newspaper archive. Covers 1901 to 1985.

Texas Archival Resources Online  Catalog of finding aids from archival collections in Texas. Most items have not been digitized, so access will require travel to the owning institution.

Texas Education Agency Bulletins and Reports

  • Select digitized copies can be found in Texas ScholarWorks
  • Print copies (1870-1996) are held in PCL Stacks at Call #: 370.6 T314
  • 1998-present are available through TEA

Texas State Library & Archives Commission Records  The official archive for state documents in Texas. Most have not been digitized and will require a visit to the capital complex. Make sure to ask the reference librarians for help!

Texas State Teacher's Association  Documents in our collection published by TSTA from 1882-2004.

Texas Textbook Adoption Lists and UT Libraries Historic Textbook Collection

Archived US Dept of Education websites

The Wayback Machine captured copies of the Department of Education website over time. On some dates, you can browse for policy/legislation pages and view old documents.

 
DOCUMENTS

Department of Education  Documents in our collection published by the Department of Education.  Follow the link into the Library Catalog and add additional terms and/or adjust date limits as needed.

National Education Association  Documents from our collection published by NEA from the 1920's to the 1990's.

ProQuest Congressional  A huge archive of federal documents, including: Bills and Resolutions, Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, Committee Prints, CRS Reports and Unpublished Hearings.

STATISTICS

120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait  Online from NCES.

Digest of Education Statistics Print only, from 1975-2011.

Historical Statistics of the United States

National Center for Education Statistics  Online statistical reports. Few are older the the 1980's.

CURRICULAR MATERIALS

UT Libraries Textbook Collections

UT Libraries Youth Collections

America's Historic Newspapers  Includes the Early American Newspapers, African American Newspapers and Hispanic American Newspapers series.

Dissertations & Thesis Full Text  Old dissertations can be an excellent source for historic data and glimpses into frameworks and practices of the past. To find digitized copies of older texts, limit by "full text" and set date ranges appropriate to your topic.

Education Index Retrospective  An index of old education journals. Many won't be readily available online, so use the "Find it @ UT" and "Request a Scan" link as needed.

Google Books  A great source for historic texts of all types!

HathiTrust Another option for finding scans of older, out-of-copyright books.

UT Library Catalog  We hold historic documents from a wide range of education-related agencies and associations.  Use the date limiter to restrict results to historic materials.

Wayback Machine  Search for archived copies of websites, using know URLs.

Primary Sources in Higher Education

Austin American Statesman  Newspaper archives from 1871 to 1975

Cactus Yearbook  Print from 1893 to 2013

Cactus Yearbook Select online copies from Texas ScholarWorks

Daily Texan  Newspaper Archives, 1900 to 2019 (Available on campus only)

Misc. UT Austin Reports and Documents:

UT Statistical Handbooks  1980 to the most recent

University of Texas Archives  Housed at the Briscoe Center for American History. Papers from many UT offices, departments, organizations and faculty.

Austin American Statesman  Newspaper archives from 1871 to 1975

Dallas Morning News  Newspaper archives from 1885 to 1984

Houston Chronicle Newspaper archives from 1901 to 1985

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

University of Texas System 

Texas Archival Resources Online  Catalog of finding aids from archival collections in Texas. Most items have not been digitized, so access will require travel to the owning institution.

DOCUMENTS

American Association of University Professors  

Chronicle of Higher Education 

  • Nexis Uni - Online back to 1997. Choose "Guided Search" and " A Publication" to limit to the CHE.
  • Microform - back to 1966 (with some gaps)

Dissertations & Thesis Full Text  Old dissertations can be an excellent source for historic data and glimpses into frameworks and practices of the past. To find digitized copies of older texts, limit by "full text" and set date ranges appropriate to your topic.

Education Index Retrospective  An index of old education journals. Many won't be readily available online, so use the "Find it @ UT" and "Request a Scan" link as needed.

Google Books  A great source for historic texts of all types!

UT Library Catalog  We hold historic documents from a wide range of education-related agencies and associations.  Use the date limiter to restrict results to historic materials.

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