Welcome from Academic Dean

Scattergood students are co-creators of their learning outcomes. Here, education occurs within the relationship between student and teacher, and student and content. Connected by their goal to learn and work together, our students are motivated and compassionate.

They possess good communication, study and time management skills, and encourage their peers to succeed through advice and example. They recreate Scattergood’s culture each year, learning how to graph quadratic functions, conjugate imperfect verbs and provide support for an extended thesis, but also how to prioritize activities and backup data, to recognize when help is needed and how to ask for it.

Our staff members all “go the extra mile” to build caring, long-term relationships with our students, creating a vibrant learning community both in and out of our classrooms.  They model academic curiosity, lifelong learning, and support individual student work.

Our learning community benefits from the unique resources of the Scattergood Organic Farm, pond, prairie, and our proximity to Iowa City. Through our regular classes and independent study program we provide experiential learning opportunities for the whole person.

Our Quaker values encourage our students to reflect on their knowledge, express themselves, engage in deep conversations, and to respect the lives of others. Students achieve levels of creative and critical thought that are more commonly found on college campuses than traditional high school settings. We offer a rigorous college preparatory curriculum culminating in studies of: trigonometry or calculus, government and global issues, Spanish 5, physics, and a challenging 20 page research paper that is defended to a panel of administrators.

To better understand our dynamic and progressive education model, we invite you to come for a visit.  We know you will be impressed.