| Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT ILLINOIS MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE ACADEMY | |
| gifted education | |
| high schools in illinois | |
| national consortium for specialized secondary schools of mathematics, science and technology schools | |
| magnet schools in illinois | |
| educational institutions established in 1985 | |
| aurora, illinois | |
OVERVIEW IMSA, which is modeled on the North Carolina School Of Science And Mathematics , focuses primarily on Mathematics , Science , and Technology , though virtually all other academic subjects are studied. The credit system bears out this emphasis on mathematics and science, as one-half credits for graduating seniors are required in math or science. IMSA is a residential magnet high school, similar to a Boarding School , which accepts students from across the state. It is also a public school, and students are not charged tuition, though a facilities fee ranging from the low hundreds to two thousand dollars is charged on a sliding scale based on family income and other circumstances. The bulk of the school's money is provided by the Illinois General Assembly after a budget recommendation is made to the governor by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. (By Illinois law, the governor submits an official budget to the legislature, in which IMSA's funding is included.) The total amount spent per student is frequently estimated at $26,000, but this number is misleading as it includes money spent on IMSA's many outreach programs. A more realistic estimate is about $20,000 per student. Even though IMSA actually spends this much money, the education is valued at around $40,000- comparable to an Ivy League education. IMSA currently does not accept students from other states or from abroad since Illinois State Board pays for the tuition. But IMSA is looking for a change to this rule. If accepted, these out-of-state students would pay full tuition, room, and board. Matriculating students are currently required to prove their residency in the state of Illinois by June of the starting year. IMSA is a member of the NCSSSMST , and its founding and current president, Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall, was also the founding president of the NCSSSMST. HISTORY Nobel laureate Leon Lederman , director emeritus of nearby Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois , was among those to first propose the school in 1982, and together with Governor Jim Thompson led the effort for its creation. (Thompson has noted with pride that he chose to build IMSA instead of competing for the ill-fated Supercollider project.) The school was established by the Illinois General Assembly in 1985, and first opened to students in 1986. The Academy is housed in a building originally constructed as the north campus of West Aurora High School , originally constructed in 1978, with seven outlying dormitories built after IMSA took over the campus. IMSA's first class graduated in 1989, with a commencement speech given by Dr. Lederman. The current and only president of the school is former Batavia Superintendent Stephanie Pace Marshall , winner of the Lincoln Laureate Award, who was involved with the project from the start and helped write IMSA's enabling legislation. She serves on the board of several non-profit and for-profit institutions, such as Tellabs . The current principal, the day-to-day operator of the school, is Dr. Eric McLaren, who began his IMSA career as a Resident Counselor in the first years of IMSA's existence and has filled many administrative roles during his tenure there. Although the school received a budget cut in FY 2002, its budget has increased recently, largely due to the support of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and House Minority Leader Tom Cross ( R - Oswego, Illinois ). ADMISSION Prospective students, who are usually freshmen in high school but in some cases can be students in eighth grade, must fill out an extensive application to gain admission to IMSA. This application can now be completed online and can be found here . The applications consists of an official transcript from the student's last 2 1/2 years of school, scores on the SAT I , several long and short essays totaling roughly four to five pages, three teacher recommendations in Science, Mathematics, and English, and a list of awards and extra-curricular activities. Due to these requirements, IMSA has a strong academic reputation. Since it draws the best students from across the state, it is sometimes considered a Magnet School . Though IMSA does not disclose the numbers, there are generally over 1,000 applicants for 240 places. The average score on the SAT for incoming sophomores (which is taken while the students are freshmen) on the 'old' SAT is usually between 1200 and 1250. This compares to an exiting average score of around 1400. In order to draw greater numbers of applications and "transform teaching and learning," IMSA has an extensive outreach network run by The Center@IMSA. Some students who are invited to attend IMSA are admitted on the condition that they successfully complete a three-week, intensive preparation course, EXCEL, over the summer. IMSA has a fairly low retention rate. Incoming sophomore classes are roughly 240, but graduating classes are only about 205. The reasons for this range from the difficulty of the IMSA curriculum, to home-sickness, to disciplinary issues, as well as the fact that there are no transfer students to replenish the ranks. The Class of 2006 has lost many members, and is now down to 185. ACADEMICS Students at IMSA take a very rigorous college preparatory curriculum. All classes are taught at the honors level, though IMSA philosophically spurns the Advanced Placement curriculum, and each student must fulfill a set of specific credits in order to graduate. This set of credits is broken down by academic subject. Each semester-long class counts for 0.5 credits, unless it meets with greater-than-normal frequency. In addition to its rigorous academic program, IMSA also offers nearly 50 clubs ranging from political groups and religious clubs to volunteer organizations {Link without Title} . IMSA bills itself as an "Educational Laboratory", and as such is frequently trying out new and experimental pedagogical techniques. These range from how classes are laid out to what is taught and even to who takes them; in the early 1990s IMSA received national attention for an exploratory study on whether girls learned physics better in single-sex or co-ed environments. IMSA's main math sequence, entitled "Mathematical Investigations" and in development by IMSA faculty since 1991, was published in handbook form in 2005 and is beginning to be adopted by other school districts in the state of Illinois. IMSA's core science curriculum has been through a number of ground-up restructurings. Its current implementation divided the old Scientific inquiry into four classes: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Inquiry. Despite this, many students claim that the institution has lost its original desire for innovation raising fears that the school may be on a slide toward a standard college preparatory school. Other students say that the problem based learning (PBL) model of education leads to unnessarily difficult classes that do not present the information in a straightforward manner. There has long been a debate about whether or not IMSA should offer an advanced placement curriculum, though opponents of AP have retained the upperhand in this debate. "Mod" scheduling The class day at IMSA runs from 7:30 to 4:15 and has been divided into twenty 20-minute modules, or "mods", since 1996 . Each module is separated by a five-minute passing period (plus a half hour in the middle for lunch). Classes can meet for anywhere from two mods (45 minutes) to five mods (120 minutes), permitting the faculty some flexibility between meeting frequently for shorter periods (e.g. for foreign language classes), or less frequently for longer periods (useful in lab science classes). Virtually all students have some free periods scattered throughout the day, as well as occasional class cancellations. However, because of the residential nature of the school, there is no need to require to sit in a study hall; they can just return to their rooms (or go to the library, the computer lab, etc.). However, IMSA is not what is usually called an "open campus", as students are not permitted to leave the school grounds without special permission. Frequency and length of classes IMSA students only attend class for four days per week, with Wednesdays reserved for research and co-curricular activity. Each student has two schedules to keep track of: one for Monday/Thursday, and one for Tuesday/Friday. A given class may meet all four days, but need not meet for the same amount of time each day. Some classes meet only two days a week. The pattern for each class is usually reduced to a pair of numbers: a 3-2 class meets for 3 mods on Monday and Thursday, and only 2 on Tuesday and Friday, while a 0-4 meets only on Tuesday and Friday, for 4 mods each day. As a result, there is considerable variation as to how many classroom minutes each course has per week: Course requirements IMSA students have a fairly rigid set of requirements at a departmental level, but within each department (especially in math and the sciences), they have many options for meeting each requirement. The class requirements are as follows, along with the typical meetings times of courses in that department (for clarity the symmetric alternatives are omitted---e.g. "3-2" below means "either 3-2 or 2-3"):
There is also a two semester additional requirement that can be filled by either math or science electives. Once these requirements are complete, students are free to take electives in any area. Most students take a full six semesters of foreign language, for instance, and despite its nominal status as a "math and science academy", IMSA offers a variety of electives in English and History as well. Intersession During the week before the second semester, all students are required to participate in Intersession, a week during which students are given a choice among dozens of enrichment sessions and off-campus trips. Many intersession activities are considerably different from typical classroom fare, in content, style, or both. Most students choose to participate in two small or one large on-campus course(s), while some travel abroad on a faculty-sponsored trip to countries including France, Spain, and Russia, and others perform a week of mentorship. Classes range from "Build Your Own Computer" to a planned trip to study Lighthouse keeping at Washington State. Alumni often teach Intersession courses and lead overseas trips along with faculty members. Inquiry Every Wednesday is "I-Day" (for "inquiry") and is usually reserved for research in the Mentorship and Inquiry programs. {Link without Title} These programs give students the opportunity to develop their own scientific research and/or to work with scientists from around the Chicago area. All IMSA students are encouraged to participate in this program, and several every year publish their research results in academic conferences and journals. Usually, only upperclassmen in grades 11-12 participate in these programs. Sophomores go to Navigation from 10-12AM, where they talk about their feelings and are helped with adjusting to residential life, and have the rest of the day off the catch up on homework, sleep, or socialize. Total Applied Learning for Entrepreneurs (TALENT) Started in the fall of 2005, the TALENT program encourages and provides resources for students to begin entrepeneurial applied science and technology projects. Headed by Nick Scholtes, formerly the manager of the Technology Advancement Division of Tellabs, Inc., students engage in workshops designed to teach them basic entrepreneurial skills and participate in real-world startups. STUDENT LIFE Residential Halls There are 7 residential halls on campus. Three halls are for males, three for females, and one that is co-ed (members of the opposite sex kept in separate wings). Each hall has 4 wings, able to house up to 24 students and one residential counselor (RC). Awards and college admissions IMSA consistently ranks at the top of the nation in standardized test scores (of roughly 200 students in the senior class, about 50 are National Merit Semifinalists), as well as in the prestigious Siemens-Westinghouse and Intel Science competitions. The class of 2005 produced six semifinalists each for Siemens and Intel. There was also one finalist for the Siemens competition, and three finalists in the Intel competition. In addition, two of the finalists in the Intel placed in the top ten; one student stood second overall, while another won sixth place. The class of 2006 continued the success, with five students being named semifinalists in both the Intel and Siemens competitions. IMSA students annually gain admission to top universities in the United States, including Harvard , Princeton , Yale , Stanford , Swarthmore and Massachusetts Institute Of Technology . Study Hours Due to the trend that many incoming IMSA students are not very good at time management, a two-hour block during evenings from Monday through Thursday is allocated when all sophomores are subject to their rooms for the purpose of a focused study period. Persons with a reasonable excuse may be pardoned from this rule on the condition that they reschedule and perform the study hours at a different time. During the second semester, Sophomores that show academic responsibility can apply to have the study hour restriction lifted. Work-Service As a graduation requirement, each student at IMSA is expected to complete a mandatory amount of academically unrelated service work for the school (3 hours a week for juniors and seniors and 30 hours total for sophomores). Like the federally-funded college work-study program, a variety of jobs are available, both skilled and unskilled. The program serves two purposes: to expose the residential students to work experience and to assist the school's state-controlled budget by providing free laborers. "Programming" or Residential Education To encourage responsibility among students, the school provides monthly educational sessions about ethical issues. The sessions, also known as "programming", vary in topics, ranging from such issues as drugs and sex to ethical leadership. These mandatory sessions typically last for about two hours, and may involve discussions within each wing as facilitated by a residential counselor, or presentations in the auditorium. TRIVIA
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