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NLU HISTORY

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HISTORY OF INNOVATION.  A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE.  A TRADITION OF ACCESS.

In late nineteenth century Chicago, three extraordinary women with vision, a passion for education and a determination to make a difference in the lives of our children laid the foundation for what is today National-Louis University (NLU). 

Urban education pioneer and community activist Elizabeth Harrison, together with Edna Dean Baker and Rumah Avilla Crouse, created a modern university—one with deep roots in Chicago as well as a reputation that extends far beyond the borders of the city it calls home.

From its beginnings as the National College of Education (NCE) to the additions of the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Management and Business, NLU is both the outcome of and testament to the vision of these three women.  It is a modern university committed to innovation and best practices in urban teaching and graduate education.  A university that excels in creating learning communities where theory complements practice. A university with a tradition of access to higher education for first-generation and urban college students who want to make a difference in their lives and in their communities.

The Modern American Kindergarten Movement Begins at NLU
Elizabeth Harrison, our University's first president, had a radical idea for her time—to create a college to train women to teach kindergarten. It was an uphill battle, however, to get the concept off the ground in the city of Chicago. In 1886 how and what young children were taught was of little concern to parents and society.  The fact that today kindergarten is a universally accepted component of public school education in the U.S. is a testament to her tenacity—and a reflection of the significant impact our university has had on American education and society.

Unmarried and childless, Harrison was an unlikely early-childhood revolutionary.  She, however, believed that the first years of a child's life were critical in its emotional and intellectual development—and she wanted to help mothers nurture the curiosity and imagination of their children through a kindergarten program that included the day's best "scientific" practices in early childhood education.

It was in kindergarten that American children were first introduced to stories and songs, scissors and paper, games and pictures.  It was a place for imagination to flourish and for creativity and curiosity to be nurtured.  In her book The Influence of the Kindergarten on Modern Civilization, Harrison said that it was important for mothers to learn "how to teach the child from the beginning of his existence that all things are connected [and] how to lead him to this vital truth from his own observation of his pot of plants or garden bed, that his flowers droop and fade if they are not watered, that his blocks tumble down if they are not built up solidly."

A Legacy of Innovation
By the time she retired as president of the National College of Education (NCE) in 1920, she had written A Study of Child Nature, one of the most popular books about children ever published, and launched this country's first three-year mothers' course of kindergarten study. Women who wanted to study at her Chicago Kindergarten College, a precursor to NLU, were required to have at least a high school diploma—a requirement that Harrison herself considered radical.  She also added graduate programs to the College, designed for teachers who wanted additional study in the field and the training they needed to move into supervisory positions.

Harrison also pioneered new educational delivery systems.  The College offered courses for mothers at its main campus in Chicago as well as branch classes in other cities and towns.  Course content remained the same but now mothers who lived outside of Chicago had access to Harrison's teachings.  In 1907 a correspondence course for mothers was added to the curriculum and in 1908 summer school became part of the academic year.

In her autobiography entitled Sketches Along Life's Road she wrote "One cannot work successfully for a great cause without a vast amount of patience…."  At the end of her long and distinguished career in education, she also noted with satisfaction that "Many of our leading universities have awakened to the call of [early] childhood [education}."

Jane Addams, one of the nation's most revered social workers and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work at Hull House on Chicago's South Side said that Elizabeth Harrison "has done more good than any woman I know.  She has brought light and power to all the educational world."

The Role of NLU in the Founding of the PTA
Harrison also wanted to strengthen the direct connections between mothers and the teachers who taught their children in the city's public schools.  Beginning in 1894, a series of mothers' convocations that she sponsored in Chicago resulted in the 1897 National Congress of Mothers, which then became known as the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).

The Business of Education
The National College of Education, the forerunner of National-Louis University, was co-founded by Harrison and Rumah Avilla Crouse, wife of a prominent Chicago dentist.  A strong supporter of Harrison's philosophy of teaching mothers the importance of early childhood education, Crouse was a tireless worker in the "scientific" kindergarten movement.

As its business manager, Crouse helped keep the school financially stable for twenty-five years. Harrison, in her autobiography, noted that Crouse's "devotion and loyalty to our cause never wavered.  She sat at her desk day after day, week after week, and month after month through hot weather and through cold weather, …struggling with problem that would have daunted many a strong heart and would have caused weak souls to have failed long ago."

In 1906, the Chicago Kindergarten College, privately owned by Harrison, Crouse and her husband, Dr. John N. Crouse, was incorporated as a non-profit entity under the laws of the State of Illinois.  In 1912, as a result of the formal union with the National Kindergarten Association, the school's name was changed to the National Kindergarten College.

Spreading the Word
Harrison's students and NLU's earliest alumnae could soon be found across the country changing the face of early childhood education.  They took charge of kindergarten training programs at Columbia College in New York; the City Normal School in Washington D.C.; the Kindergarten College in Fort Worth, Texas; and at State Normal Schools in California, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The Growth of a College
As word spread about the revolution taking place in education in Chicago, larger facilities were needed top handle both the increase in enrollment and staff to support the growth.  In 1906, the College moved to a spacious, and centrally located, new home at 1200 South Michigan Boulevard.  In 1913, it moved yet again, this time to a red brick and stone Victorian mansion with tapestry-lined walls, ceilings decorated in god leaf and stained glass windows at 2944 South Michigan Avenue.  A three-story brick dormitory and a two-story carriage house and stable completed the facilities used by the College.

Enrollment continued to grow—from 132 in 1913 to 150 in 1920.  Six houses on Michigan Avenues became elegant dormitories for the young women who came from small towns outside Chicago to be at the forefront of the country's early childhood revolution.

A Time of Change. A New Leader for the College.
In 1915, Edna Dean Baker, another activist and advocate for early childhood education who had been one of Harrison's kindergarten students in the class of 1908, was named assistant to the president. Three years later, she was named acting president following the serious heart attack suffered by her friend and mentor. 

When it became clear that her health would not permit her to resume her presidency, Harrison subsequently submitted her resignation to the board of trustees in 1920 and recommended that Baker be named her successor. 

The first president of what is today called National-Louis University died at the age of 78 in 1927.  Her death was national news, noted in papers ranging from the San Diego Sun to the New York Herald. Harrison's legacy, however, continued to thrive.  The school's name, changed in 1916 to the National Kindergarten and Elementary College, reflected its expanded curriculum and expanded mission.

The City and the College:  Growth and Challenges
The realities of the changes taking place in the City of Chicago, coupled with a growth in enrollment, proved difficult for Baker to ignore and for the College to overcome.  The neighborhood in which the school was located had evolved from am elegant, residential district to the center of the city's automobile trade.  Its new neighbors included cheap boarding houses prostitutes, drug addicts—and the men who came and went from Al Capone's nearby headquarters.

Students could not help but notice their surroundings. As Margaret Kimball Henrichen, Class of 1921, wrote "Our alley was a pet one all our own, and it was not a handsome specimen even for a Chicago alley.  In winter, its mud was four inches thick and of a peculiarly gluey consistency, desperately handicapping the two o'clock rush from the 'L' station.  In summer, though, it was even worse with its sun-baked bricks so hot that they seemed to magnify the power of the sun."  Complementing the mud and noise was the smell from the stockyards one mile away to the southwest.

Overcrowding also soon became the norm in classrooms, dormitories, the dining rooms and offices. The College's move to the City of Evanston, north of Chicago, in 1926 was, many thought, long overdue.

The Evanston Years:  A New Chapter for the University
The National Kindergarten and Elementary College had grown considerably since its inception.  It now included The Children's School, established in 1918, to serve children (preschool through Grade 8) who lived above and at the back of the laundries, restaurants and shops that lined 29th Street.  Tuition was initially free and the school was filled with the sounds of the seventeen nationalities represented in the neighborhood. 

This time, "moving the college" involved a more complex set of logistics.  Baker and the governing board decided they needed at least three acres to accommodate a classroom building for 500 students; a demonstration school for 250 students; a dormitory for 150 to 200 students; and adequate playground space.  The site had to be accessible by transportation, near Lake Michigan—and in or near a neighborhood where property values could be sustained for at least twenty-five years.

Evanston seemed to "fit the bill."  Baker and the board were especially encouraged by the welcome extended by officials at Northwestern University, who saw the preschool and elementary education emphasis of the College to be complementary to the secondary and higher education courses offered at their own School of Education.

Groundbreaking ceremonies took place in March 1925 with six-year-old Caroline Sutherland turning over the first spade of earth.  Caroline, the daughter of Carrie Chambers Sutherland, Class of 1903 and trustee William Sutherland, was chosen to symbolize the College's commitment to childhood education. As the classroom building, appropriately named Harrison Hall, became ready for occupancy, a student wrote in the 1926 yearbook "It ain't no fable.  It's a true story—we're leaving the stable."

At the Forefront of Chicago's Modern Nursery School Movement—and the country's HEAD START program
Moving the campus to Evanston, however, did not mean that Baker would cut all ties with Chicago.  She had become aware of a program in London created by two sisters, Rachel and Margaret MacMillan, for needy children in that city.  Called a nursery school, it was a novel idea in early childhood education that did not cross the Atlantic until after World War I.

Only a handful of these schools existed before 1923 but an opportunity to open one presented itself in Chicago.  The day nursery at Hull House, which served children in the inner city, had closed—and Baker thought that Jane Addams might be interested in replacing it with a modern nursery school.

And she was. Addams, who thought the addition would be a good complement to the kindergarten already at Hull House, co-founded with Baker the Mary Crane Nursery School in 1925.  This collaborative effort also attracted the attention of the Infant Welfare Society, a healthcare provider; the Infant Welfare Department of the Chicago Board of Health, which provided dental care; the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research,, which focused on behavioral difficulties; and the United Charities of Chicago, an organization dedicated to assisting parents of the school's students who demonstrated financial need.

When the doors opened, fifty children of various nationalities from families with varying economic backgrounds were enrolled in two groups:  ages two through four and four through six.  The school, which was open five days a week, from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., was described by one National College student as a place of "sunshine, and sleep, and spinach" since its curriculum included rest periods, afternoon naps and the noon meal.

Attention to hygiene and nutrition were high priorities.  Baker, in her book An Adventure in Higher Education, recalled "In the Hull House neighborhood at that time the children came in very poor, dirty clothing.  Most of them were not bathed properly at home and the most fundamental habits relating to hygiene…had not been taught [to] them….Facilities were provided for the children to become independent in washing their hands and faces, combing their hair, bathing, using the toilet, brushing their teeth, and also in eating and resting."

Another critical part of the program was parental involvement.  In addition to helping plan the activities of the school, they also served as cooks, kitchen assistants and maintenance workers.  Many of the mothers had difficulty understanding English; cooking and nutrition instructors, therefore, used pictures for instruction as well as taught them the English words for many of the nutritional foods they were encouraged to buy at their local grocery stores.

Although tuition was free, parents often contributed whatever they felt they could afford. As Baker astutely observed "It became evident to the social agencies as well as to the nursery school staff that the parents had a greater appreciation and respect for the nursery school when they contributed to its support."

Although the Mary Crane Nursery School is no longer at Hull House, it continues to serve its original audience through a community-centered program under the educational supervision of the National College of Education at NLU.  Its efforts on behalf of Chicago's neediest children also helped set the stage for the national HEAD START program.

The National College of Education
The year 1930 was a turning point for the College. The school changed its name once more, this time becoming the National College of Education (NCE), and introduced the first four-year, teacher-training course in the state of Illinois. Baker was named to President Herbert Hoover's Preschool Committee of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection.

It was also a demarcation year for Chicago and the country.  The aftermath of the stock market crash of October 28, 1929 was economically devastating.  A record number of banks closed, Chicago's unemployment rate reached 50 percent and the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

But good times returned after the Great Depression and World War II—and the National College of Education enjoyed the benefits of post-war prosperity.  Baker continued as president until her retirement in 1949. She died in 1956, having the steered the College through some of the most turbulent and exciting years in its history.

"Nothing short of a miracle" was how one trustee described Baker's administration.  She moved the College to Evanston when Chicago became an untenable location for her students.  During the Great Depression, she stabilized enrollment by lowering tuition and the fees charged for room and board—and cut salaries, including her own. During the war, she raised the morale of working mothers and unemployed teachers by providing care for their children and jobs in emergency nursery schools.  And she did it all without the safety nets provided by an endowment or a lot of wealthy alumnae.

The Modern Era Begins at NCE
K. Richard Johnson, a faculty member, Baker's assistant and self-described change agent, was inaugurated as the third president of the College in 1949. During his tenure, Dr. J., as he was affectionately known, created the NCE graduate department in 1952.  It received full accreditation in 1954 from both the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education to offer a Master of Education degree.  He was also keenly interested in adapting technology for classroom instruction.

Under Johnson, the College embarked on a major building program in 1965, constructing a new residence hall and a new facility on the Evanston campus to house the library, classrooms and a swimming pool for the physical education program. 

The curriculum continued to expand—and NCE now offered undergraduate and graduate degrees early childhood, elementary education and secondary education as well as programs in school psychology, curriculum and instruction, administration and supervision and reading.

NCE Becomes NLU
The College's new curriculum demanded that NCE students become more proficient in their content areas.  Academic support programs, therefore, were added in such areas as allied health, applied behavioral sciences and human services. 

In 1982, they were formally organized as the Michael W. Louis College of Arts and Sciences (CAS).  The new College, named for one of the university's strongest supporters and philanthropists, expanded its offerings to include the fine arts, biology, written communications, English, applied languages, mathematics and quantitative studies, psychology, public policy and the social sciences.

In 1989, university officials responded to a growing demand for better prepared employees for area businesses by creating what is today the College of Business and Management.  Its undergraduate programs in management and management information systems, as well as its graduate programs in management, including the M.B.A. are among the university's most popular offerings.

With growth, however, has remained a commitment to personalized instruction, a diverse student body and learning communities in which our students are active participants with our faculty.

NLU TODAY: A History Of Innovation.  A Reputation For Excellence.  A Tradition Of Access.
Today, NLU is ranked second in the country by U.S. News and World Report for the percentage of its classes  (96%) that have fewer than twenty students.  Many of our classes are taught using the cohort model, which means you will go through the program with the same group of 12-20 students—and benefit from their support and friendship throughout your NLU experience. 

Today's NLU also embodies the vision and commitment of its founders to innovation, excellence and access—and their legacy continues in modern adaptations of their programs and initiatives.

• In the tradition of Harrison and Baker, NLU faculty have written widely published and highly respected books on educational practices and theory:

 

Camille Blachowicz (NCE, Reading and Language) is the co-author of many books on reading, including Reading Diagnosis: An Instructional Approach, Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms, Reading Comprehension: Strategies for Independent Learners, Reading Street, Fluency Development: From Research to Practice, and the chapter on vocabulary research for the third Handbook of Reading Research

Bill Boyle (CAS, Applied Behavioral Studies) is the author of Getting Connected and Starting to Finish, definitive texts on adult learning employed by various adult degree-completion programs at 13 institutions in the U.S.

Marilyn Bizar and Art Hyde (NCE, Secondary Education) are the co-authors of Methods that Matter: Six Structures for Best Practice Classrooms and Best Practice, Third Edition: Today's Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools (Heinemann, Third Edition, 2005).

Donna Ogle (NCE, Reading and Language) has published articles in such journals as The Reading Teacher, The Journal of Reading Behavior, Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappa , and The Journal of Reading.

• An innovative curriculum that began with the first three-year mothers' course of kindergarten study continues to evolve with distinctive undergraduate and graduate programs that include:

 

• The Community College Leadership Doctoral Program—designed to train the next generation of leaders for this growing and important segment of higher education.

• The B.A./M.A.T. Dual Degree Program—offering content specialization with the credentials needed to teach at the secondary school level.

 

• The M.Ed. in Interdisciplinary Studies Program—whose curriculum includes preparation for National Board Certification, the highest professional credential that can be earned by a teacher in Illinois.

 

• Harrison's branch campus concept, and her belief in expanding the ways to bring education to students, are reflected in our campus structure and innovative course delivery system.

At NLU, students can take classes:

ONLINE:  Six fully online degree programs including the M.B.A.

ON THE NLU CAMPUS:  In Illinois in Chicago, Elgin, Lisle, Skokie (North Shore) and Wheeling.  Each campus is centrally located and easily accessible from major expressways, by CTA and by Metra.

ON THE CAMPUS OF A COMMUNITY COLLEGE: Students can take NLU courses from NLU faculty on the campus of their community college—and take advantage of our growing number of educational and advising partnerships that helps them earn their four-degree quickly and easily.

ON SITE:  Many NLU classes are held one night a week where our students work and NLU faculty come to their place of employment to teach. We've partnered with dozens of area businesses, hospitals and school systems to bring customized courses in business, education, health and human services and the liberal arts on site—as well as offer a tuition discount based on group size.
Our successful on site partnerships include those with:

• the Chicago Public Schools
• Children's Memorial Hospital
• Evanston Hospital
• United Parcel Service (UPS)
• Verizon
• Resurrection Health Care

ON BASE:  Members of the U.S. Armed Forces in Northern Virginia take NLU classes at Andrews Air Force Base. 
ON THE ROAD:  NLU classes are also offered in locations that make sense for our students, such as Alexandria, Virginia and Orlando, Florida.  NLU's faculty teach courses in cities in four states as well as the District of Columbia. 

OVERSEAS:  NLU's business curriculum is taught in Poland under an agreement with the Polish-Wasi Foundation.

• Harrison's desire to strengthen the direct connections between mothers and the teachers who taught their children in the city's public schools has evolved into NLU's strong ties to the Chicago Public School (CPS) system.

 

Throughout the years, NLU and CPS partnered on programs and initiatives in:

• 110 elementary school
• 2 middle schools
• 18 high schools
• 8 magnet schools
• 3 technical and vocational schools
• 4 language schools and
• 23 other schools including community and scholastic academies.

• Our tradition of successful collaborations with Hull House and other community-based groups continues.  Today, NLU has partnerships with more than 100 organizations including:
• The Academy for Urban School Leadership
• Illinois Reading Recovery
• North Shore Senior Center
• Resurrection Project
• Teach for America

 

• Like Rumah Avilla Crouse and Edna Dean Baker, we also understand the need to "take care of business" in times that present new competitive and economic pressures for the institution.
• Stabilizing enrollment is one of the institution's strategic goals—as is diversifying its revenue base through increased alumni and corporate financial support, grants and sponsored programs.
• NLU has been accepted as an AQIP institution and has started the process of continual improvement in all facets of its operation.

• Today's NLU reflects K. Richard Johnson's keen interest in adapting technology for classroom instruction.
• All of NLU's campuses have high-speed, wireless access—and students can take courses or entire degree programs on line, including the B.S. in Management, B.S. in Management Information Systems, the M.B.A., M.Ed. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Curriculum and Instruction and the M.Ed. in Adult, Continuing and Literacy Education.

 

• The University's ability to thoughtfully and courageously adapt to changing times, a cherished tradition deep-rooted in the institution, continues in the 21st century.
• In 2006, NLU closed its Evanston campus and opened a new site in Skokie in response to changing demographic patterns in the greater Chicago area.
• The College of Management and Business is being realigned and transformed via a business-to-business content delivery model.
• Stronger partnerships are being forged with area community colleges to strengthen the enrollment pipeline.

• Advancing the argument that education is a profession—and that teachers should be both valued and well educated continue to be a priority for our University.
• NLU has partnered with the Chicago Public Trust to increase the number of teachers in the Chicago Public Schools who have earned National Board Certification—the highest professional credential for a professional educator in Illinois. 

 

• The Harrison and Baker legacy of serving the Chicago community, especially those with the greatest need for access to a quality education is reflected in state and national rankings, the composition of its student body and new initiatives:
• In June 2006, NLU was ranked fourth in Illinois by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine for the number of business/management degrees earned by African-Americans.
• In 2007, NLU was ranked fifth in the country, among doctoral, research-intensive institutions, by U.S. News & World Report for its economically diverse student body.
• Of the more than 14,000 students enrolled in 2006, 68 percent were African-American, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific Islanders.
• Proyecto Communidad, one of the University's newest initiatives, has as one of its goals to increase the number of degreed Latino students in the Chicago area.

THE ROAD AHEAD:  THINKING STRATEGIALLY.  ACTING DECISIVELY

As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, higher education is at a tipping point.  Affordability and accessibility are threatened by rising costs, challenges to affirmative action and declining state support.  At many institutions, deferred maintenance on aging buildings can no longer be overlooked—and the expense related to technology expansion continues to increase. 

As increasing competitive enrollment climate has led to the development of sophisticated marketing operations at many colleges and universities.  Recruiting and retaining key faculty has become more critical as institutions seek research funding to offset operational costs and bolster their reputations.

National-Louis University (NLU) is not alone among its peers in addressing these and other challenges.  In order to remain a viable institution of higher education, however, it must also reaffirm what is basic to a university, specifically its mission and its eight core values.  They are the foundation upon which our strategic plan is built.