Calvert School (CES Acquisition Corp)

The story begins in 1896, when four Baltimore families hired a German teacher, Fraulein Martha Auguste Schurmann, to start a kindergarten for their children. This small school, initially for just 15 students, quickly formalized. A pivotal moment came in 1899 with the hiring of its first Head Master, Virgil M. Hillyer, a Harvard graduate who established the institution's innovative educational philosophy. Hillyer was a true innovator, introducing concepts like green chalkboards and founding the Home Instruction Department in 1906. This division was created to send lessons home during a series of epidemics, a move that laid the groundwork for a global homeschooling program. This homeschooling curriculum became a distinct entity, Calvert Education Services, which served families and students in all 50 states and over 90 countries. Decades later, the trajectory of the homeschooling division shifted significantly. In 2013, the Calvert School sold the homeschool program, which was then known as Calvert Education Services (and also CES Acquisition Corp), to an investment group. The final major event in this journey occurred in 2019, when the global education company Edmentum acquired Calvert Education Services. This acquisition integrated Calvert's long-established K-8 curriculum into Edmentum's broader suite of digital learning tools, continuing the evolution of a program that started in a Baltimore kindergarten over a century ago.