Our Roots

  • 1895 A teacher training department is formed at Honolulu High School, located in Princess Ruth’s former mansion (now Central Intermediate School).
  • 1896 The teacher training department moves to Victoria and Young Streets and is renamed Honolulu Normal and Training School.
  • 1905 After annexation, Hawai‘i becomes a U.S. territory. Honolulu Normal and Training School is renamed Territorial Normal and Training School and is moved to Lunalilo and Quarry streets.
  • 1921 The school moves to a new 15-acre site (once a pig farm) adjoining the University of Hawai‘i at Ma–noa. The university’s Department of Secondary Education becomes the School of Education.
  • 1930 Benjamin Wist (later dean of Teachers College) becomes the principal of the school.
  • 1931 The legislature transfers the Territorial Normal and Training School to the School of Education. The School of Education is renamed Teachers College.
  • 1939–1941 An elementary school (University Elementary School) is built on Metcalf Street as part of Teachers College. Construction begins on Castle Memorial Hall, a training center for kindergarten and nursery school teachers.
  • 1941–1945 Punahou School, displaced by the military occupying its campus, moves into Castle Memorial Hall and other buildings, but Teachers College continues to operate.
  • 1943 University High School Building 1 on the Metcalf Street side of Teachers College is completed as an intermediate school.
  • 1948 University High School Building 2 is constructed adjacent to Building 1. The schools now offer a complete K–12 curriculum. Hubert Everly (later dean of the College of Education) becomes the principal.
  • 1959 Teachers College becomes the College of Education, and Hawai‘i becomes the fiftieth state.
  • 1966 The schools become part of a new entity, the Hawai‘i Curriculum Center. This is a joint operation of the Hawai‘i Department of Education and the University of Hawai‘i to develop curriculum programs and materials for schools.
  • 1969 The Hawai‘i Curriculum Center is phased out and the University Laboratory School (ULS) comes under a new College of Education unit known as the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG).
  • 1996 CRDG, along with other research units, reorganizes under the UH Office of the Senior Vice President for Research.
  • 2000 CRDG merges with the College of Education. ULS applies for charter school status.
  • 2001 ULS becomes a charter school. CRDG continues to operate the school as a laboratory for curriculum R & D.