NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES ON HISTORICAL FACTORS IN LONG RUN GROWTH A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES Claudia Goldin Historical Paper 119 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 August 1999 The data series compilation was funded by a grant from The Spencer Foundation through the NBER. I am grateful to the research assistants who ably helped with this project: Nora Gordon, Marina Jovanovic, and Michael Pisetsky. I thank Caroline Hoxby for consultation on some of the series and Tom Snyder of the U.S. Department of Education, National Center of Education Statistics for unstinting help with numerous details. The series that are not included with this essay can be obtained by request to cgoldin@harvard.edu Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and not those of the National Bureau of Economic Research. © 1999 by Claudia Goldin. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may