Although from the time of the University's founding in 1876 primary emphasis was placed on advanced study and upon attracting students from throughout the United States, nevertheless, founders also stressed the need to bring educational opportunities to the residents of the Baltimore area. President Daniel Coit Gilman and the Board of Trustees recognized the necessity of integrating the University's interests and activities with the cultural, professional and educational needs of the Baltimore region. In his Fourth Annual Report (1879) Gilman stated that the Trustees "recognized the fact that the wants of Baltimore and the region near to it were to be first considered." In addition, it was realized that, as stated by Gilman, the University "must rest on a good system of secondary education and primary schools. . . ." (First Annual Report, 1876). Based on these two considerations, part-time and adult education courses for the community, especially for local school teachers, were introduced shortly after the University began its full-time program.

Beginning in 1877, the University sponsored non-credit lectures open to the public. A series entitled "Lectures for the People" began in 1879, given by the Hopkins faculty at the Workingman's Institute in East Baltimore. President Gilman delivered the first lecture in this series. Meanwhile, regular courses were also being introduced. The first of these, entitled "Teachers' Class in Physiology," was given by Professor Henry Newell Martin in 1877. The class met for twenty weeks on Saturday mornings and sixteen students, mostly school teachers, were admitted. In the following years, several more courses were offered, with attendance restricted to school teachers. Among these were "Teachers' Class in Zoology" (1878), "Teachers' Class in Early English" (1880), "On the Theory of Numbers" (1880), "On Improved Methods of Beginning the Study of Latin" (1884), and "On Early English" (1881). By 1884, ten courses were offered, becoming an integral part of the University's curriculum.

In view of the rapid growth and popularity of courses open to adult students, a formal program, the College Courses for Teachers, was begun in 1909, in cooperation with the Woman's College of Baltimore (soon to be renamed Goucher College). Dr. Edward F. Buchner, Professor of Education and Philosophy, was appointed director of this program. In its first year, 69 part-time students were enrolled in eight courses. The enrollment grew to 189 in 1914-1915, with fourteen courses offered.

At first, courses offered in this part-time program were on a non-credit basis, although certificates were awarded to those students who successfully completed the work and passed the examinations. In 1916, the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education was established and an Advisory Committee on the B.S. Degree, made up of University administrators and faculty members, was created in order to set requirements and recommend candidates for the degree. Three students received the B.S. degree in the first year. At the same time, new courses were added to meet the needs of social workers. In 1915, at the request of the Baltimore Life Underwriters, lectures on insurance were also provided. Both the flexibility and variety of these program helped to attract more and more students.

The College Courses for Teachers changed its name to the College for Teachers in 1924. Upon Buchner's untimely death in 1929, Dr. Florence E. Bamberger was named to direct the Department of Education, which had overseen the College for Teachers since 1915. In 1942, Bamberger assumed responsibility for the Summer Session while retaining her duties as director of the College for Teachers.

In the Depression years of the early 1930s, enrollment dropped by nearly one-half by 1933. This decrease was followed by a slow recovery later in the decade; by 1940 enrollment had nearly returned to its pre-Depression level. As with the First World War, the coming of the Second World War caused a sharp decrease in student enrollment. But the end of the war brought another quick recovery and, by 1946, enrollment was rising dramatically.

The year 1947 represents a turning point in the history of part-time education programs at Johns Hopkins, as McCoy College was established by merging the three existing evening programs. Two major factors led to this development. First, since the adult education program had been guided by the needs of the local community, the rapid growth of the population of Baltimore in the second quarter of the century had led to a substantial expansion of this program. By the 1940s, it had become clear that further expansion would require greater coordination between these programs. Second, as the number of graduate students, undergraduates and adults enrolled in the evening and summer classes gradually increased, the early emphasis on teachers and school administrators declined. In view of these two circumstances, the University Trustees decided in May 1947 to consolidate the three evening programs -- the College for Teachers, the Night Courses in Technology, and the Evening Courses in Business Economics -- into a single administrative unit. John W. McCoy, for whom the new College was named, had been a prominent Baltimore businessman, as well as an early benefactor of the University who left a large library and half a million dollars to the University upon his death in 1889.

For information of the history of McCoy College, the Evening College and the School of Continuing Studies, the sequential successors of the College for Teachers, see the History for record group number 05.001.