Perdoceo Education

Career Education was founded in 1994 by John M. Larson who served as the company's president, CEO and was a member of the board of directors until 2006. Under his leadership, Career Education grew to include over 24 U.S. campuses. On July 1, 2003, Career Education Corporation merged with competitor Whitman Education Group, Inc., gaining control over the latter's Sanford-Brown Colleges, Ultrasound Diagnostic Schools , and Colorado Technical University. They also obtained the former Western School of Health and Business. In the same year, CEC was sued for inflating financial results and issuing misleading statements, violating the Securities Exchange Act.

In March 2007, Gary McCullough joined the company and served as CEO until November 2011, when Steven H. Lesnik assumed the role of interim president and CEO. Lesnik was the former chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education. In 2009, Career Education purchased the right to operate Le Cordon Bleu schools in the United States and Canada. In April 2013, Scott Steffey, a veteran of Strayer Education Inc. and former vice chancellor of the State University of New York system, was named as Lesnik's permanent replacement.According to a 2014 US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions report, 48% of Career Education's programs would have failed or been at risk of failing the US Department of Education's new "gainful employment" standards. Until 2015, California Regent Richard Blum was a significant shareholder of Career Education stock despite allegations of conflict of interest.Todd S. Nelson was named CEO of Career Education Corporation in 2015. Nelson was previously the CEO of Apollo Group and Education Management Corporation . The organization closed most of its 50 campuses in the United States as the corporation downsized to two primarily online brands: American InterContinental University and Colorado Technical University. In 2016, Career Education Corporation had about 43,000 students. However, approximately 9,400 students came from schools that were shutting down.

In March 2017, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos appointed Robert Eitel, a former Career Education vice president, as an advisor. In March 2019, Career Education Corporation entered into an agreement with Trident University International, an online for-profit college with approximately 4,000 students, for $35 - $44 million, and merged this acquisition into American InterContinental University. In September 2019, The Capitol Forum reported that CECO schools "enjoyed an uptick in growth but have declined in quality metrics—spending on instruction, number of dropouts and bad debt all worsened, sometimes dramatically so."On January 1, 2020, Career Education Corporation officially changed its name to Perdoceo. In March 2020, The Capitol Forum reported that the US Department of Education allowed Perdoceo and its subsidiary AIU to defer $39 million in Title IV money to avoid violating the 90/10 rule.In 2021, Perdoceo acquired DigitalCrafts for $18.4 million and Hippo Education for $43.3 million. In 2022 Andrew Hurst replaced Todd Nelson as CEO.

The same year, the corporation acquired Southern California University.