Normal schools in the United States

Normal schools in the United States in the 19th century were developed and built primarily to train elementary-level teachers for the public schools. The term “normal school” is based on the French école normale, a sixteenth-century model school with model classrooms where model teaching practices were taught to teacher candidates. Many high schools in the 19th century had one-year "normal school" programs to train teachers for common schools, In the early 20th century the normal schools all became state colleges. More recently most have become state universities with a wide range of programs beyond just training teachers.