National–Louis University (NLU) is a private non-profit American university. NLU has campuses in and near Chicago, Illinois, as well as in Wisconsin, Florida, and Nowy Sącz, Poland. Many NLU courses and programs are also offered at-a-distance. The university practices multi-campus, at-a-distance, and cohort educational models for traditional and non-traditional students. Since its founding in 1886, NLU has played an historic role in education, when it helped found the National Kindergarten Movement, and the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and stressed the importance of academic and professional training in childhood education theory and practice. National–Louis University began in 1886, when Elizabeth Harrison founded the school to train "Kindergarteners", young women teachers who began the early childhood education movement. The school's requirements became a model for education colleges nationwide.