Our Story
Our Story
Our Story & Purpose
Founded in 1998, the Institute for Educational Advancement (IEA) was created to address the pressing and unmet needs of gifted children. Today, IEA continues this legacy. Our work is grounded in the belief that gifted and advanced learners thrive when their intellectual and creative gifts are matched with the right opportunities, mentorship, and educational environments.
Our History
IEA was founded in 1998 by Elizabeth D. Jones, former Associate Director of The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and Director of the Western Region, and Jim Davis, former Superintendent of La Cañada Unified School District in California. Since, we have continued to create a community for gifted and advanced students who seek to understand their intellectual and creative gifts.
Our Mission
Our Philosophy: Optimal Match
IEA believes in providing strong programs, guided by skilled professionals, to help gifted students fully actualize their talents. Our philosophy ensures that a student’s unique, assessed needs are met with the most effective learning resources.
Finding the Perfect Ratio: IEA’s Optimal Match Philosophy
- Gifted children are more than test scores. They are individuals and a one-size-fits-all approach will not adequately meet their needs. As part of our child-centered approach, IEA follows the Optimal Match Philosophy, matching students’ assessed needs with the optimal educational resources. What does this child need? How can we best help?
- IEA’s programs are designed to fit each participant’s ability and interest. We focus on the uniqueness of each person.
- All of IEA’s academic programs encourage the practical application of knowledge. Students aren’t simply provided with information as fact and expected to accept and absorb it verbatim; they learn through hands-on experiences and by solving real-world problems alongside peers and mentors.
- Our gifted programs have some of the best student-to-staff ratios in the nation. We keep our programs small and in-person to provide more individualized attention to each participant, foster poignant connections, and focus on program quality.
Our Impact
IEA serves as a catalyst for identifying and advancing best practices in gifted education. We champion the development of gifted students through partnerships with experts, foundations, nonprofits, businesses, and universities — empowering each student to pursue their full intellectual and personal potential while cultivating respect for the diversity of human experience.
The IEA Difference
- 13,000+ children and families directly served
- 1,500+ educators trained
- Student-Teacher Ratio 8:1
- 95% of 2023 program participants were satisfied or extremely satisfied
- The Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship — home to one of the only merit-based, need-blind high school scholarships in the country
- NAGC Global Awareness Network’s Annemarie Roeper Award Recipient for our Yunasa Summer Camp
Our Commitment to Belonging
IEA is an advocate for all gifted students, recognizing that giftedness occurs in every culture and across every ethnic and social group, and our participants reflect this diversity. We are committed to ensuring that all gifted youth – regardless of cultural background, ethnicity, national origin, race, faith, ideology, income, educational background, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation – have the opportunity to reach their full potential.
IEA celebrates differences and values the individual perspectives each student brings, teaching tolerance, respect and acceptance, while modeling integrity, understanding and compassion. We strive to offer a welcoming space for conversation and healing where uniqueness is honored and discrimination and violence are never tolerated.
“Our goal, the heart and mission of IEA, is to help the gifted child grow and live a purposeful, meaningful life in whatever way they choose.”
– Elizabeth D. Jones, IEA Founder