Kildeer Countryside School District 96 is home to around 3,400 Pre-K-through-eighth-grade students who live in southern Lake County, a diverse community where more than 60 languages are spoken. Five of its seven buildings are U.S. Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Schools.
Read moreNIU middle-level education curriculum earns national accreditation, recognition
NIU’s program in Middle Level Teaching and Learning has received accreditation and national recognition from the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). The favorable review follows years of internal data collection and annual reporting to the university that began in 2018, which
Read moreShine on! Two alumnae named finalists for Chicago-area Golden Apple awards
One dreamed of teaching art but eventually decided that she would not pursue that goal – until, well, she did. The other wanted to work as a print journalist, and even did so for a while, but ultimately realized that she needed
Read moreSweet! COE alumna Lisa Robinson wins Rockford-area 2025 Golden Apple award
Lisa Robinson, kindergarten teacher at Rolling Green Elementary School, has been a Golden Apple finalist before. And now Robinson, who earned a B.S.Ed. in Special Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing in 2004, is a winner. “Being recognized as a Top 20
Read moreAlumna Erin Anderson finds her place, Golden Apple recognition as a principal
Erin Anderson had witnessed a Golden Apple surprise before. March 16, 2023. An entourage of well-wishers had come to Harlem School District 122’s Donald C. Parker Early Education Center, where Anderson serves as principal. They huddled near her office, waiting to congratulate
Read moreGrateful: Double-alumna Mary Noe sees reward in sharing ‘gifts’ of NIU degrees
Mary Noe knows the key to flourishing and informational transactions between high school students and educators. Listening. “I feel that a lot of students do not have many people who would listen to them talk; they would talk at them but not
Read moreBuilding bridges: RISE to revolutionize teaching, learning in Rockford schools by engaging community, valuing voices
Taren Turner frames her obligation as an educator in terms of “ensuring responsiveness and innovation.” And the director of Alternative Education Programming for the Rockford Public Schools has discovered ways to do just that in the RISE (Rockford Inspiring School and Community
Read moreCongratulations!
BREAKING NEWS! The NIU College of Education ranked No. 54 out of 313 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Online Master’s in Education Programs! This is the 13th consecutive year that our online graduate programs have been nationally ranked. ***
Read moreCI’s Hyoju Ahn wins dissertation award
Hyoju Ahn has a new plaque for the office wall: the 2024 J. Estill Alexander Future Leaders in Literacy Dissertation Award from the Association for Literacy Educators and Researchers. Yet the career-boosting honor is providing her more than a decoration. “It honestly
Read moreRazak Dwomoh named ‘Rising Star’ by alma mater Eastern Illinois University
Razak Dwomoh knows why he teaches – and why he prepares future educators to use inquiry-based instructional approaches in their classrooms that foster the civic readiness of students. “Looking at the way the world is now, and how the world is evolving,
Read moreAlready ‘rising’: RPS-205 students start strong toward grow-your-own degrees
While they still have 18 months to go, the future teachers enrolled in the Grow Your Own RISE (Rockford Inspiring School and Community Excellence) initiative are off to a great start. At the midpoint of the fall semester, the students (all current
Read moreFall numbers of graduate students ranks College of Education atop NIU’s campus
Student numbers in the NIU College of Education have reached levels not seen in a decade. “Our graduate enrollments are up by 9.9%, or 112 students, which is the highest graduate enrollment we’ve had in the last 10 years,” said David Walker,
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