UI opens early-entry academy for high schoolers

The University of Iowa has established an early entrance academy for high-achieving 10th graders — the first such academy in the state and among the first nationally at a public research university.

The Martin and Melva Bucksbaum Early Entrance Academy for Science, Technology, Arts, Engineering and Math has been made possible through a $10 million donation from Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan and Patrick Scanlan. The center is being named in memory of Mary’s parents, Martin and Melva Bucksbaum.

The proposed naming was announced last week and approved Thursday by the Iowa Board of Regents during its meeting in Ames.

"I think of these people every day with every decision I made and try to honor them," said Susan Assouline, director of the Belin and Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development in the UI College of Education.

The new STEAM academy — which Assouline said adds "the Arts" to STEM programming — is one of the center's programs.

The high-ability students will enroll at UI in fall 2016 as first-year students. The majority of students will enter the academy at age 16 in fall 2016 after completing the equivalent of their sophomore year in high school.

UI hopes to admit 12 to 20 students from across the state and nation for the first cohort of academy students. The academy will give these students a group of high-ability peers who will be going through similar experiences and transitions.

Assouline said educational acceleration policies vary widely across the nation — with only 15 states explicitly allowing gifted elementary and secondary students to be placed ahead of where they would be in the regular school curriculum.

In Iowa, state policy allows local school boards to decide acceleration policy.

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at 319-887-5435 or jcharisc@press-citizen.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffcharis.