By definition, “normal schools” only offered two-year degrees. Normal school graduates were prepared to teach in the elementary school grades (or “common schools,” as they were known at the time). Educators who wanted to teach at the high school level needed to do more advanced work at institutions offering four-year, or baccalaureate degrees.
In the early 1900s, only the state’s flagship public university, the University of Illinois, was educating high school teachers. Some of the state’s other schools chafed under the restrictions they endured as “mere normal schools,” including a decidedly less-favorable funding model.
But while some Illinois normal school presidents were eager to expand their offerings, John Williston Cook at NISNS was not among them. So strong was his belief in the normal school concept that he held off expanding the school’s curriculum through the end of his presidency. Finally, under the leadership of his successor, Northern became a four-year, bachelor’s-degree-granting institution in 1921.
Click on photos to enlarge