American School

The American School, a not for profit distance learning institution utilizing various distance education methods, is dedicated to providing quality instruction at a reasonable cost to those students who are seeking an alternative means of attaining their education. We have called the Chicago area home for much of our 124-year existence, but the American School was founded in Boston in 1897 by R.T. Miller and a group of graduates and faculty members from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. By 1900, students had enrolled from all over the United States, and two years later, the Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) invited American School to move to Chicago to conduct a five-year educational experiment. During that time, the School added several more courses and eventually moved to a new location in the Hyde Park neighborhood near the University of Chicago. American School stayed in that location until 1996, when it moved to its current location in Lansing, Illinois, a far south suburb of Chicago. American School has no owners or stockholders but instead is controlled by a Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees elects the President and Executive Committee which lead the School on a day-to-day basis.