NIU’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic treats more than 3,500 people each year with innovative assessments and treatment for a wide array of speech, language, reading, and hearing problems.
Author Archives: Joseph King
NIU is a partner with the Illinois State Board of Education, the Chicago Public Schools and the Illinois Resource Center in a federally funded initiative to recruit and train bilingual teachers. Students will need two-and-a-half years to complete the rigorous curriculum. The first cohort graduated in May 2008.
NIU is creating an ultra-fast, fiber-optic communications network that will bring next-generation technology to the northern Illinois region. Dubbed “NIUNet,” the 175-mile fiber optic loop is expected to be a huge boon to research and economic development efforts. The network also could advance state-of-the-art health care technology, benefit area schools and help keep sought-after high tech jobs from leaving the region for more “connected” communities on either coast.
NIU is home to the Interactive Illinois Report Card, a Web-based tool NIU created and maintains that helps teachers, school districts and parents make sense of mountains of materials on student performance. The IIRC helps schools identify problems earlier, and helps families understand how their schools stack up against others in the state.
NIU leads the statewide “P-20” initiative that promotes better teacher training and higher student achievement from pre-school through graduate school.
NIU is a leader in Illinois in the creation of academic programs dedicated to preparing students for careers related to homeland security. Currently the university offers certificates that train students how to help businesses and communities prepare for, react to and recover from acts of terrorism or natural disasters. Specialties include cyber security, biochemical sciences, health sciences, environmental hazards and risk assessment, and manufacturing and industrial technology.
The School of Theatre and Dance has one of only three academically-based Meisner training programs available nationally. Through SummerNITE, its resident professional company, the School is a member of the elite University Resident Theatre Association. One of 33 theatre programs with ties to Actors Equity Card.
The School of Music houses the premiere graduate string quartet training program in the nation, and its ensembles have a long record of “best” awards in national competition from Down Beat Magazine. Its graduate program in Jazz Studies is ranked in the Top 10 nationally.
NIU’s School of Art is the largest producer of art teachers in Illinois and, overall, NIU is one of the 10 largest teacher preparation programs in the nation.
The School of Art is the first choice for undergraduate art majors in Illinois. Its graduate program in art education is ranked in the Top 5 in size and scope.
U.S. News & World Report ranks NIU’s Master’s of Public Administration program third nationally in the specialty field of city management and urban policy, ahead of programs at all public and private institutions in Illinois and prestigious schools as USC, Syracuse and the University of North Carolina. NIU’s public administration program, a division within the Department of Political Science, produces about one-third of all Illinois city managers. The magazine ranks the program’s specialty in pubic finance and budgeting 13th in the nation.
NIU boasts the only political science program in the country that offers politics and the life sciences (or biopolitics) as a distinct field of graduate study. The Association for Politics and the Life Sciences and its journal were both founded at NIU. Three Political Science faculty members associated with this specialization have been named NIU Presidential Research Professors.
