The Carden Educational Foundation was organized in 1962 and continues to preserve the integrity of the CARDEN METHOD© while engaging in an ongoing program development in keeping with current advancements in education.

Mae Carden established the first CARDEN SCHOOL® in 1934 at 24 East 68th Street in New York City. Two years later she moved it to 43 East 67th Street. She demonstrated that children can gain an understanding of their own language and attain the ability to use it correctly when reading, listening, speaking, or writing. Her goal was to teach children to think; her main techniques were analysis and rhythm. Her educational philosophy and teaching techniques became an integral part of the CARDEN METHOD®. Teachers, students, and parents often shorten the name of this interrelated, eclectic group of approaches to learning. They call it Carden.

In 1949 Mae Carden closed her school in New York and with close associates, Dorothea Freyfogle and May Crissey, organized Mae Carden, Inc. The new arrangement enabled Mae Carden to give full attention to the use of the CARDEN METHOD® in other schools.

To assure the continuation of her work, she established The Carden Educational Foundation, Inc., a New York not-for-profit corporation, in 1962. After Mae Carden passed away in 1977, the Foundation absorbed all of the activities and purposes of Mae Carden, Inc., and dissolved that organization. All rights, title, and interest in the CARDEN METHOD®, including Carden and the Carden Curriculum, are vested in the Foundation.

In 1973, Carden El Encanto Day School opened, today renamed Carden Academy of Santa Clara, established by Marcia Mc Manus and Mae Carden.