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University Laboratory High School was established in 1921 and is a laboratory school located on the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois, that has students from 8th grade (roughly age 13) through 12th grade. "Uni High" or "Uni", as it is familiarly known among the students, is unusual in that the lowest grade is a combined "subfreshman" grade, to which both current 6th and 7th graders are allowed to apply. Therefore, many students end up effectively skipping the seventh grade, going directly to the subfreshman year - more commonly known to the Uni family as "subbies". It is not uncommon for students to graduate at the age of 16 or 17. This leads to many students taking a year off before entering college.
In 2006, Uni was named a "public elite" school by Newsweek in their list of Best High Schools in America, along with only 20 other schools. It was placed in this separate category because "so many of their students score well above average on the SAT and ACT," and as such was excluded from the normal ranking system. Uni is a publicly-funded but competitive enrollment school. It receives support from state taxes, but not from local property taxes, as it is not in a school district. For many years, it was funded by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a place to experiment with educational curricula, but the University of Illinois withdrew most of its support in the early 1980s. The "laboratory" aspect persists in certain classes. An experimental math course was taught in the early 2000s and teachers continue to experiment in small, creative ways with their courses to adapt to each grade of sixty students.
One of the most notable examples of the creative teaching methods employed by Uni educators is the work of teacher John (Chris) Butler, who developed an innovative flow-chart based approach to the learning of history. This work was recognized by the American Historical Society (AHA). In 2000 Butler received the AHA Beveridge Family Teaching Award, established in 1995 and given in alternating years to individual and groups of K-12 history teachers.
Being part of the University does have other benefits for the school as well. There is an open-campus policy and upperclassmen at Uni frequently take classes at the University of Illinois (the only requirements to being able to concurrently enroll are being at least 15 years of age and have a minimum GPA of 3.5). They also have access to U of I's library system that is equivalent to that of any undergraduate. Additionally, Kenney Gym, the University's old men's gymnasium, is used by Uni for both physical education and as practice and game space for the volleyball and basketball teams.
Notable alumni
Uni has many famous alumni, including three Nobel Prize laureates: Philip W. Anderson (class of 1940) won the prize for physics in 1977, Hamilton O. Smith (class of 1948) received the award for medicine in 1978, and James Tobin (class of 1935) won the 1981 prize for economics. Theo Gray (class of 1982) won the Ig Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2002. Uni is also alma mater to the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will, the late best-selling author Iris Chang, and the 2003 Miss America paegant winner, Erika Harold.
See also
- University Laboratory High School Of Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln Independent Study High School
- University of Toronto Schools
- University of Chicago Laboratory School
External links
- University High home page
- University High student newspaper, the Gargoyle, online version
- Newsweek article naming Uni High as a "public elite"
High schools in Illinois | Laboratory high schools | Educational institutions established in 1921
"University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois"