Established by the University of Michigan Board of Regents in 1987, the School of Education is the newest academic unit on the UM-Dearborn campus. However, education programming has deep roots on the campus, stretching back to fall 1960 when teacher education courses were added to the offerings in what was then the Division of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Three faculty members were hired in 1960 to launch the education program. Paul D. Carter, who was an associate professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, was selected as the first head of teacher education at what was then called the Dearborn Center of the University of Michigan. Professor Carter served the University of Michigan for 20 years before retiring in 1976, after which he was named professor emeritus on both the Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses.

In 1971 the Regents gave the campus its current name, the University of Michigan-Dearborn. That also was the year in which the Department of Education was formed within the Division of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and Dr. Richard W. Morshead was selected as the chairman. Morshead remained the leader of education on the UM-Dearborn campus until his retirement in 1989, including serving as the head of the Division of Education and then as the inaugural dean of the School of Education when it was formed in 1987.