In their beginning, public evening schools in New York City had three goals: teach vocational skills, compensate for lack of previous education, and Americanize immigrants. The subsequent growth of several different evening school programs transformed the emphasis from teaching the culturally disadvantaged to adult education. (EC)

Exploring the contribution of the home, apprenticeship, and evening schools, the analysis suggests that while sex bias apparently favored males in quality and quantity of educational opportunity, women's education in Colonial America was richer than popularly conceived. (Author/MW)