Welcome to a journey—to historical travel through the Laboratory School’s introduction and teaching of Latin, German, French, Spanish, and Russian across 116 years.

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As you travel through these years with us, you will be introduced to changes in all aspects. Our parent university's name changed from Iowa State Normal School (1876) to Iowa State Teachers College (1909) to the State College of Iowa (1961) and finally to the University of Northern Iowa (1967). 

The name of our school moves from a "Model School" to a "Training School" to a "Campus School" and finally a "laboratory School."
 

The department name also evolved from Foreign Language Department to the Modern Language Department to finally the World Language Department. 

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Administrators encouraged and supported the Classical to World Languages faculty to develop innovative strategies and methods of teaching.   We will tell the story of the dynamic way in which they delivered their program: what they taught, how they taught it, and the assessment and evaluation techniques used to evaluate teaching and learning.

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Not only did they teach young students, but they also worked with undergraduate and graduate students in all phases of their programs.  They provided leadership in the field through consultation with school districts; publication of texts, articles, and teaching materials; participation in national organizations; interaction with teachers abroad and with visiting teachers and administrators from all over our state, country and the world.