CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Jeffrey Walkington, the vice president of academic affairs at the Latin School of Chicago, has been named the new principal and director of University Laboratory High School, the laboratory school of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pending approval by the Board of Trustees at its meeting May 21 in Chicago.
Walkington is scheduled to begin work at Uni High on July 16. He succeeds interim principal and director Steve Epperson.
“I am deeply impressed by Dr. Walkington’s record of achievement and by the exciting vision and energy he brings to the Uni High directorship,” said Linda Katehi, the provost at Illinois. “Under his leadership, I am convinced Uni High will continue its traditions of excellence and innovation.”
Walkington earned a bachelor’s degree in English and French in 1984 from DePauw University, where he graduated with honors and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After a brief stint as a public relations director, he earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
He began his secondary education career teaching English at a public high school in Knoxville for five years before returning to the University of Tennessee to pursue a Ph.D. in English, which he completed in 1999.
Upon earning his Ph.D., Walkington worked at the Webb School in Knoxville for four years, holding several positions including director of public relations. Walkington then served as assistant headmaster/upper school head at the Cannon School in Concord, N.C., from 1998 to 2006.
In 2006, he assumed his current role of vice president of academic affairs at the Latin School of Chicago.
University Laboratory High School was established in 1921 and serves as a site for curriculum research while providing a model college-preparatory program for academically gifted students. The school counts three Nobel Prize winners and a Pulitzer Prize winner among its alumni.
In 2006 and 2007, Uni was recognized as a “public elite” school by Newsweek because of its students’ high scores on the SAT exam.
Students at Uni take a five-year accelerated high school curriculum that begins with the subfreshman year, a combined seventh- and eighth-grade experience thought to be the oldest gifted education experiment in the country.
As a laboratory school, Uni is a public school eligible for state aid, but because its enrollment is not determined by residence, the school does not receive any local
property- or corporate-tax support. Additional funds are provided by parents, alumni and friends, as well as from corporate sources and grants.
The school’s normal enrollment is about 300 students.
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