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Congratulations on Making it to Nationals!
Cedar Rapids Jefferson Earns State Champion Honors
Iowa high school teams competed in the Iowa Academic Decathlon® State Competition at Saydel High School, March 5th through 6th.
State championship honors went to Cedar Rapids Jefferson with a score of 41,407.6. They will represent Iowa at the United States Academic Decathlon National Competition in Garden Grove, CA April 23-25, 2026.
At the state event, students received scores for two personalized events of Speech and Interview, as well as 7 objective tests over various subjects. The essay was completed online earlier in February.
We were honored to also feature several high scoring individuals from various school districts all over the state. Our awards banquet featured our highest scoring speakers presenting their award winning submissions, as well as a plethora of individuals from 20 different schools recognized for their individual efforts.
Academic Decathlon, the premiere national scholastic competition for high school students, was created to provide opportunities for students to experience the challenges of rigorous team and individual academic competition. Each student competes in 10 events: Art, Economics, Essay, Interview, Literature, Math, Music, Science, Social Science and Speech. Students also compete in the Super Quiz™ Relay, a quiz-show event that includes questions from six topic areas.
A unique aspect of Academic Decathlon® is that it is designed to include students from all academic ability and achievement levels. Each nine-member team consists of three Honor students (3.80 – 4.00 GPA), three Scholastic students (3.20 – 3.799 GPA) and three Varsity students (0.00 – 3.199 GPA).
Each team member competes in all of the 10 events against other students in their individual divisions, and team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded for individual events and overall scores.
A new theme of study is established every year with topics that are relevant, current and challenging. This year’s theme was The Roaring Twenties.
Interested in learning more about how to start an Iowa Academic Decathlon team in your school? Please contact Daniel Nizzi at statedirector@iowaacdec.org. Iowa Academic Decathlon offers incentives for new teams, including free curriculum for the first year with a two-year commitment.
Division I
Cedar Rapids Jefferson
Johnston
Mason City
Dowling
Cedar Rapids Washington
Cedar Rapids Prairie
Urbandale
Des Moines Roosevelt
Waterloo East
Des Moines Lincoln
Division II
Union
Denison
South Central Calhoun
Grundy Center
Saydel
Des Moines Hoover
South Hardin
Adel-Desoto-Minburn
Baxter
Assumption
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