NCATE - Institution & The Unit

Institution Overview

Wayne State College is a regional public institution and is a part of a three-school state college system geographically positioned to serve northeastern Nebraska. The city of Wayne, population 5,583, is located about 100 miles northwest of Omaha and 50 miles southwest of Sioux City, Iowa. Students are attracted to the College by its rural setting and small size, the personalized support by faculty, a co-curricular program of student activities, and opportunities to enhance leadership skills.

Wayne State College has a rich history as a teacher preparing institution. It was founded in 1891 as the Nebraska Normal College. One of its most famous alums, John G. Neihardt, attended the school in those early years and later wrote of the intellectual vistas the place opened for him. “It was as though the college had been created for me. It lifted me to a higher, creative level of being. Often there came upon me a thrilled sense of expectancy, as though something particularly glorious were getting ready to happen all at once.” While Neihardt taught in public schools for only a short time, he did go on to publish the tremendously popular book, Black Elk Speaks. He was also named Nebraska’s poet laureate in 1921. A residence hall on campus bears his name.

Responding to the pressing need for teachers across the state, the Nebraska legislature purchased the Normal College in 1910 and created Wayne State Normal College. Its history from that point follows a fairly typical progression from normal college to state teacher’s college, and from state teacher’s college to state college.

What is not typical about Wayne State’s institutional development is that teacher preparation has never ceased to be the important thrust of the college. In Places Where Teachers Are Taught, John Goodlad and his colleagues chronicled the gradual decline of both status and resources in teacher education programs as comprehensive colleges sought to distance themselves from their normal school beginnings. Contrary to this very widespread trend, Wayne State has consistently celebrated its birth as an institution dedicated to the preparation of teachers. In fact, a one-room schoolhouse sits near the center of the campus as a reminder to all of the centrality of teacher preparation to the overall mission of the College. (O.1)