NIU Today

The NIU College of Education’s ongoing Community Learning Series continues Thursday, Oct. 22, when the college welcomes back three distinguished alumni to share their experiences as educators and school administrators and to provide insights into what it takes to be successful in today’s classrooms. The guests also will provide an “on-the-ground” look at some of...

NIU will host its 42nd annual Summer Literacy Conference titled “Beyond the Common Core: Taking All Educators to the Head of the Class” from Tuesday, June 16, through Thursday, June 18, at NIU-Naperville. Topics will address ways the Common Core impacts educational policy and instruction for English Learners (ELs), raises the bar for ELs’ academic...

Nell Duke, professor of language, literacy and culture at the University of Michigan, will visit the NIU campus Monday, March 16, to deliver a lecture on “Aligning Effective Informational Text Instruction with the Common Core Standards.” Her talk begins at 6 p.m. in the Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center, followed by a Q-and-A...

Longtime friends Corrine Wickens and Elsa Glover were jogging together a few years ago when the conversation turned – naturally – to education. What happened next reads like the script of a classic TV commercial for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. NIU’s Wickens, an associate professor in the Department of Literacy and Elementary Education, and Glover,...

Until we find that goose laying golden eggs, we are all going to have to learn to manage credit and debt wisely. Luckily, NIU’s Center for Economic Education and STEM Outreach are offering a workshop for educators and a STEM Café for the general public to help people learn about financial literacy. And, in the...

NIU’s Department of Literacy Education is sponsoring a Literacy Educators & Leaders Networking Event from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the NIU-Naperville campus, 1120 E. Diehl Road. This event provides the opportunity for alumni to reconnect with faculty and former classmates as well as to bring new colleagues to introduce them to...

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) awarded a $140,000 yearly grant to Paul Kelter, professor of Elementary Education in the Department of Literacy Education, and Jon Miller, professor of Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences. Grant funds will support the project “Integrating Math and Science with Content, Pedagogy, and Technology (IMSCPT).” IMSCPT has...

John P. Sabatini, a senior research scientist at the Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service, will visit the NIU campus Wednesday, Nov. 9, as a guest of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language & Literacy. Sabatini will speak on “The Role of Cognitive Assessments of Reading Comprehension in the New World Order of the...

NIU’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy (CISLL) will welcome University of Chicago professor James W. Pellegrino for a Thursday, Sept. 15, lecture. Pellegrino, Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor and Distinguished Professor of Education at UIC, will speak on “Promises & Pitfalls in the Drive Toward Common State Standards and Common...