1967
Teacher George H. Richmond creates the first MicroSociety program in his at-risk fifth grade classroom in Brooklyn, New York.

1968-1969
The first MicroSociety summer program begins at Trinity School in New York as part of Project Broadjump.

1970-1972
While working on his doctorate at Harvard University, George Richmond starts a MicroSociety with a class in P.S. 126 in New York and his successes are covered in Saturday Review and Newsweek Magazine. MicroSociety programs spread to fourteen classrooms.

1973
Harper & Row publishes George Richmond’s The Micro-Society School: A Real World in Miniature. Dr. Richmond becomes a junior high school principal.

1974
Dr. Richmond adds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard. He begins a four-year campaign building public/private partnerships as Special Assistant to the Superintendent for Economic Development in Hartford, CT.

1975-1979
MicroSociety programs start in scattered sites around the city of Hartford. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich publishes Micro-Economy: A Real Estate Simulation for the Elementary School Classroom.

1980-1981
With Dr. Richmond’s help, a group of dedicated teachers and consultants launch the first school-wide MicroSociety in Lowell, Massachusetts’s City Magnet School.

1982-1988
Additional MicroSociety programs begin in schools in New York, Maryland and Ohio.

1989
McNeil Lehrer News Hour and Phi Delta Kappan cover the Lowell MicroSociety School.

1990
Learning in America: Schools That Work, a two-hour documentary narrated by Roger Mudd, features Lowell’s MicroSociety School and reaches a national audience, as do the Christian Science Monitor, Phi Delta Kappan, and Education Week.

1991
MicroSociety, Inc. is established as a non-profit consulting service. In June 1991, teachers, parents and businessmen form the Consortium of MicroSociety Schools. School Board News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times report on seven schools now flourishing.

1992
In September, Time Magazine publishes and enthusiastic feature article. Peter Jennings showcases the MicroSociety program on ABC’s World News Tonight; the Consortium discovers a grassroots movement of MicroSociety Schools growing in the United States. The New York Times and Education Week do feature stories.

1992
In November, the number of MicroSociety Schools jumps from seven to twenty-one. Internationally, Dr. Richmond is interviewed on Japanese television. Australian television coverage airs on PBS and is seen in 18 countries around the world. America Illustrated for Russia covers MicroSociety education.

1993
September statistics report 20 schools in Florida and 60 others forming elsewhere. National coverage includes: Kid City Magazine (a Sesame Street Publication), Teacher Magazine, Time Chronicle, 1992: The Year in Review, Education Networks. Internationally, articles and/or TV interviews appear in Chile, Italy, Australia and Japan.

1995
June statistics indicate the number of MicroSociety programs has doubled again. TV and newspaper coverage includes: The Cronkite Report: Lessons for the Future, Family Live Magazine, Educational Leadership, and CNN’s Your Money with Stuart Varney. Schools are routinely highlighted in the local and regional press. International coverage has appeared in Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Russia and the Ukraine.

1996
Phi Delta Kappa’s Kappan Magazine and The Baltimore Sun run feature articles on the MicroSociety program. The first MicroSociety program in a pre-Kindergarten setting opened in New York City. Arthur Levine, the Dean of Columbia University’s Teachers College, visits a MicroSociety program in Yonkers, New York. MICROSOCIETY presented its program at the Law Magnet School Conference in Orlando, Florida. MICROSOCIETY launches the beginning of a three year strategic planning process to prepare for the anticipated increases in demand to come with new federal funding and hires its first Regional Director to work with the fast growing demand in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. MICROSOCIETY hosts MicroSociety schools at its fourth annual conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
West Middle School in Sioux City, Iowa, becomes the first middle school to adapt the MicroSociety Program.

1997
MICROSOCIETY holds its fifth annual conference in San Diego, drawing coverage from local and national media. A local NBC affiliate produces an hour-long show, the Sunday American Headliner. MICROSOCIETY’s program attracts schools funded through the federal School-to-Career program. Fitzpatrick Elementary School becomes the first MicroSociety school in Philadelphia. Two new members on MICROSOCIETY, Inc. board, Vickie Phillips and Jack Dale, bring broad credentials in public education. MicroSociety programs begin in Wyoming, Texas, and Michigan.

1998
The Philadelphia Inquirer and the El Paso Times run articles on the MicroSociety program in local schools. The U.S. Department of Education’s Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory recognizes the MicroSociety program as a successful whole school reform model and includes it in the its Catalog of Whole School Reform Models. The CBS Saturday Early Show, the St. Petersburg Times, and the San Jose Mercury News carry articles on local MicroSociety programs. MICROSOCIETY launches the Philadelphia Initiative underwritten by the William Penn Foundation, the Calder Foundation, and the State of Pennsylvania. First Union Bank underwrites the development of MICROSOCIETY’s reading component, The Reading Industry, over a two-year period. MICROSOCIETY holds its conference in El Paso, Texas and adds nine new trainers to its pool of certified trainers. Researchers at Drexel University find that children in a randomly selected group of MicroSociety schools show a 7% increase in reading, 11% in language arts, and 25% in mathematics.

1999
Boys Harbor in New York City launches the first after school MicroSociety program. The Board of the Pew Charitable Trust holds its annual meeting at Sageland Elementary School in El Paso Texas, a school with a six-year history of a successful MicroSociety program and the winner of the National Blue Ribbon School Award. Gardendale Elementary School in Florida receives the National Blue Ribbon School Award on the strength of its improvements, largely due to its MicroSociety program. The first “Work Place” charter school opens in Miami, Florida, with the MicroSociety program serving the children of Ryder Corporation employees. MICROSOCIETY holds its annual conference in Menlo Park, California. The MicroSociety program is highlighted by the State of West Virginia as a “Program of Excellence.”

2000
January sees MICROSOCIETY move into its new offices at 3rd and Market in Philadelphia, a move of two blocks and a 50% increase in space to house new staff to work with the growing number of schools seeking its assistance. The summer conference’s theme, Putting Academic Achievement in Focus, foretells the national debate of the coming years over the purpose of schooling. MICROSOCIETY receives a challenge grant to establish an endowment. The Miami Herald and the San Francisco Chronicle feature the MicroSociety program.

2001
In June MICROSOCIETY’s board of directors announces that funding available to schools from the U.S. Department of Education’s Comprehensive School Reform and Demonstration Program (CSR), has enabled MICROSOCIETY to increase its services to schools by 50%. The St. Petersburg Times does a follow-up story on Maximo Elementary School’s MicroSociety program. The New York Times features the MicroSociety program.

2002
In January, Morgan Stanley awards MICROSOCIETY with a grant to develop a school violence prevention program based on the MicroSociety program principles enabling MICROSOCIETY to begin the development of its Peace Advocacy Citizenship Training (PACT) program with four schools drawn from Pennsylvania, Florida, and Delaware. The Seattle Times features the Talbot Hill MicroSociety School in suburban Renton, Washington as the host of MICROSOCIETY’s 2002 summer conference.

2003
In January, Teacher Magazine published by Education Week features the MicroSociety program and its innovative and successful approach to preparing children for the real world. Scholastic News publishes an article on economics education in elementary schools and features a MicroSociety program on its cover and as its lead story. In September, the Morgan Stanley supported PACT program is presented to over 75 Congressional Staff in Washington, D.C. at a hearing conducted by students participating in the program. An increasing number of charter schools adopt the MicroSociety program as their educational framework. Magnet schools also find the MicroSociety program an excellent way to attract students.

2004
In August, George H. Richmond, founder of the MicroSociety program succumbs to cancer. His career as educator, artist, and poet is memorialized at services in Philadelphia. Dr. Richmond’s life and impact on education are featured in an Investment Business Daily article. MICROSOCIETY begins the pilot of its middle school social studies program, Society in Action in Philadelphia schools and begins development of two new programs: a secondary citizenship program, Citizens in Action, and an after school program, Micro AfterSchool. MICROSOCIETY launches an academy for principals in MicroSociety schools using a summer conference and winter retreat format.

2005
In March, North Carolina public television produces a segment on the MicroSociety program at Healthy Start Academy in Durham, North Carolina. In Florida, The Palm Beach Post and the Ocala Charity Register feature the MicroSociety program and its positive impact on local students and their families. MICROSOCIETY adds an academy for MicroSociety program coordinators to its offerings with winter and summer meetings.

2006
MICROSOCIETY partners with Oppenheimer Funds, Inc. to bring entrepreneurship programming to students in the Northeast region.

2007
MICROSOCIETY sites double in less than a full year in the NE region.