The Grawemeyer Award in Education was the third of the four awards first established in 1988.  The purpose of the award was “to stimulate ideas that have potential to bring about significant improvement in educational practice and attainment.”  The first Grawemeyer Education Award was presented in 1989 to Bertrand Schwartz of Paris, France, for his idea, "The Social and Vocational Preparation of Disadvantaged Young People and Experiments in New Qualifications."

Initial screening of the Grawemeyer Award in Education nominees is conducted by a committee of College of Education and Human Development faculty who select three finalists for the Grawemeyer Award in Education.  External reviewers then evaluate the finalists. 

For the final selection committee, Charles Grawemeyer insisted that the winner be chosen by a lay committee comprised of the President of the University or designee, the Dean of the College of Education and Human Development, and three members of the community with some involvement in the educational enterprise.  Until a year before his death in 1993, Charlie Grawemeyer sat on the final selection committee.  The committee recommends the award winner to the President who forwards the recommendation to the Board of Trustees of the University.   The University of Louisville Board of Trustees approves the final recommendation.

As of 2010, twenty-one Grawemeyer Awards in Education have been given either to an individual or group of authors.  No award was given in 1999, 2004 or 2011.  The 2012 Grawemeyer Award in Education winner is Linda Darling-Hammond for her work "The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future."