The university was established in 1863 as Kansas State Normal School. A university history gives 1907 as the first date teacher training was organized as a department.
Since then, The Teachers College has been through a few name changes:
The National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF) is a non-profit organization that honors exceptional school teachers. The NTHF was established in 1989 by a consortium of organizations including Emporia State, the Alumni Association of the school, the City of Emporia, Emporia Public Schools, as well as the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce. The NTHF has a museum on Emporia State's campus that honors the teachers inducted. Every June, the Hall of Fame inducts five of the most outstanding educators in the United States.[11]
Memorial for Fallen Educators with the one-room school house in the background
On June 13, 2013, the NTHF executive director Carol Strickland, along with former ESU President Michael Shonrock, Bill Maness, representing U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, and former mayor Rob Gilligan, broke ground by the one-room school house located on the Emporia State campus to build a memorial for the teachers that have fallen in the "line of duty". The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was the main inspiration for the memorial.[12] On June 6, 2014, the granite memorial markers were placed along with granite benches.[13] The official dedication was on June 12, 2014.[14]
The Teachers College at Emporia State University is one of only four post-secondary institutions in the nation—along with Alverno College, Stanford University, and University of Virginia—to be identified as an Exemplary Model Teacher Education program by Arthur Levine in his 2006 national study of teacher education programs Educating School Teachers.[17]
