Laurene Powell Jobs and her XQ school bus are coming to us via television on major networks on September 8th. She wants to remake high schools.
Powell Jobs would have you think that high schools haven’t changed for a hundred years. That’s not true. The American high school can certainly always improve, but the institution has served us well throughout the years. I’ve written about XQ before.
How could we change high schools? Here are fourteen practical suggestions. If you have ideas, let me know and I will add them.
- For years, research has shown that high school students need more sleep. They should have later start times.
- Smaller class sizes would help.
- Make sure teachers don’t have so many preparation plans.
- End advanced placement classes (IMHO).
- Improve career-technical classes.
- Provide rich extra-curricular activities.
- Bring back life skills classes.
- Include a social justice curriculum.
- Include students on the disciplinary board.
- Provide civics education.
- Make sure students get opportunities to participate in the arts.
- Work to include the community.
- Ensure students have access to counselors, and school support staff.
- Every high school should have a great library, a real librarian, and technology and books.
It’s especially ironic that Powell Jobs uses a school bus to hype her venture philanthropic program. You won’t need school buses for what she’s proposing. That is unless they take students to places other than brick-and-mortar schools–like museums.
Her “remake the American high school” mantra is really about replacing high schools with technology—learning anytime, anyplace. Here are titles and phrases from the website that hint of that.
- Going to School in a Museum: Does Learning Have to Happen in a School?
- Imagine a Super School
- America Needs a New Way of Learning
- High School Will Never Be the Same Again
- The Next Generation Must Learn to Adapt to a Changing World
- When Your School is a Museum
Laurene Powell Jobs and the quest to change high schools are not new. If you want to blame someone for difficulties in public schools, blame politicians and corporate CEOs who have irresponsibly been attempting this feat on their own for years.
Remember Bill Gates and the small school initiative? They tried to break up Manuel High School in Denver using more than $2 million. It was a failure.
The Gates Foundation also failed at the first Philadelphia School of the Future—an all-tech high school.
Go back even further.
In 1995, the RJR Nabisco Foundation launched Reinventing Education: Entrepreneurship in America’s Public School, by the Chairman and CEO of IBM Lou V. Gerstner, Jr.
Gerstner talked of New Century Schools—“clearing away restrictions” at the same time pushing for the standards that would eventually hamstring teachers into a standardization box when it came to teaching.
Powell-Jobs might have her heart in the right place on some issues. Her attention to social justice surrounding problems facing children and immigration are commendable. She worked to pass Dream Act federal legislation to create a path for undocumented students to earn their citizenship.
But her underlying motives to transform public schooling to technology are troubling. Her background and current involvement in tech reform is telling.
- Powell-Jobs serves on the advisory board of Udacity. This company is the for-profit provider of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). We still aren’t sure how MOOCs will play out in the future. But there is concern about what it will mean to learning in university settings.
- Her Emerson Collective is an organization that supports nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and partnerships surrounding schools. These connections in today’s reform are almost always about unproven reforms that will destroy democratic public schooling.
- Especially worrisome, is that Powell Jobs used to be on the board of directors of the NewSchools Venture Fund. This group, around since 1998, promotes and invests in many corporate organizations intent on privatizing public schools. They support groups like KIPP and Teach for America.
Schools highlighted on the XQ website advertised as innovative are all driven by technology. Teachers might be mentioned, but it’s not clear if their use of the word teacher means a qualified teacher with an actual degree in teaching.
It isn’t clear whether students have access to a well-rounded curriculum. Some of their innovative schools seem to specialize in a narrow area.
One question to ask, did Powell-Jobs attend a public high school herself? Do her children attend public schools?
To summarize, if you decide to watch the XQ special, and get excited to see Tom Hanks and other movie stars and celebrities, just remember tech and kids online for most of their schooling—in places other than brick-and-mortar schools. There’s always so much more to the glitzy marketing and propaganda than meets the eye.
I am especially drawn to school improvement Item 4, “End advanced placement classes (IMHO).” It’s the right opinion IMHO.
Thanks, Thomas…probably too humble. Ha,
YEP!
Elaborate about the end to AP classes, please
Hi Roy, Thank you for commenting. I left a link concerning AP on that statement.
Thanks, Nancy. I should have seen it, but I am color blind, and highlights in red often do not jump out at me. I read the piece and agree with most of the points, especially the ones about the power of College Board.
It strikes me that the advanced placement classes fall into the same pile as the dual credit classes. I have often questioned whether it is a good idea to offer classes that count for college credit when the ones taking them are the best and brightest. Why do we want our best students learning half as much?
It gets worse. The College Board’s latest offering is AP Computer Science Principles. It’s a non-major course and while they claim it’s “college level” it’s a course that is frequently targeted towards 10th grade. Sorry, a course can’t be appropriate for both a 10th grader and a college student.
Then you have partnerships like the one the College Board entered with code.org – an organization that I generally like and is really trying to do good. they’re going to give “training” to schools and districts to teach APCS-Principles if the school or district signs the kids up for the PSAT8/9 – another meaningless exam. I wrote about that here: https://cestlaz.github.io/posts/2015-05-19-code-org-college-board.html
Mike, I disagree that a course can’t be appropriate for both a 10th grader and a college student. It depends on the student. There are many high school students capable of doing advanced work, and many college age students who need to take remedial classes before even starting a community college degree.
Roy, I disagree with your comment about dual credit college courses. Florida doesn’t do a whole lot right when it comes to education, but several districts offer dual enrollment programs, including the one I used to live in. These dual credit courses have allowed students to make substantial progress towards a college degree (and in some cases even graduate from HS with an A.S. degree), cutting down on the cost of college considerably. I’ve known many students who have gone on to finish their college degree with minimal or no debt as a result of dual enrollment programs and gone on to successful careers. Given the incredible debt burdens many college graduates are carrying, I have come to see dual enrollment as a great opportunity for students able to handle community college level work in high school.
A lot of kids go into college in the second year because of AP classes saving them a year of tuition.
Debt burden means pressure on students to push to get college done early which can mean they don’t get the great experience college should be or high school.
I often stress not pushing preschoolers to be kindergartners. It equally makes sense not to push high schoolers to be college majors before they are ready.
Also, teachers can teach advanced material without AP.
That is ridiculous to end AP classes considering the amount of money spent on special education. It shouldn’t be one sided and the idea is to educate the whole child. Some will take a little more effort to get the lesson while others work at a faster pace. Let’s not dumb down the system but tailor to the students needs.
Add to the list of improvements…Make the senior year one of capstone requirement that uses all of the last hours of high school. The students here have a couple of classes, then the rest of the day off. They could be taking advanced classes in arts, humanities, science or advanced tech instead of fooling around with screen time or gettig into trouble.
I agree. Too many hours wasted senior year for some students. They are rarely, however, even close to the maturity needed to pass good college courses.
A few years ago, Capstone seemed like a push to add a project to all the high-stakes testing. I didn’t feel like most students appreciated it. Maybe the purpose of it has changed. Thanks, Alyce.
The Laurene Powell Jobs project listed 10 high schools it was going to turn into Super Schools. I think some already existed and some were to be started. One was in Oakland, CA, and that project has already collapsed.
A small correction on the history of the Bill Gates small schools project, which I’ve written about over the years. Gates gave school districts in many places money to break larger schools up into small schools. He was convinced that this would be the magical miracle solution, based on his own personal whim. It had little or no positive impact anywhere. The story with Manual HS in Denver is that it actually caused the school to collapse and close. (It reopened some years later.) Gates basically went oopsie, oh well … and walked away looking for the next magical miracle solution.
Excellent! Thank you, Caroline, for summarizing the small schools break-up so well. He has certainly left a trail of failure. Also did not know about the Oakland project. I appreciate your comment very much.
On the other hand, the blunt invasion of schools like Manual High School as a means to break apart surrounding poor neighborhoods and bring in the re-gentrifiers has worked quite well. Many in Denver would hardly recognize particular areas around Manual these days (the same for other poor-neighborhood immigrant-serving communities like those surrounding North High School, West High School and currently targeted Lincoln High School): yuppies walking dogs, pushing strollers, riding bikes in shiny latex shorts; coffee shops, boutiques, 1920s one-story bungalows turned into three-story metal and glass high-end homes. The non-wealthy and generally non-White? Just sort of gone….
Caroline, I tried to find information on the Oakland XQ school failure. Would you happen to have a link to what happened? One of our high schools here in Maryland applied for an XQ grant, didn’t win but went forward with the school anyway. It was supposed to open this year as a LYNX “school”. I noticed it is now touted as a “program” within the school. I’ve PIA’d to get the information for mentors and finance sources, but none have been forth coming.
Thank
Cindy
I wanted to comment on the small schools idea. I know very little of Bill Gates’ idea, but I teach at a small school. I think it is the best solution for many of the problems we have in education. When I came to the place where I teach, it was a K-12 school that had functioned as a lynchpin of the community for years, ever since one of two small town schools had burned. It served to unite the eastern part of our county during this time and was staffed by some of the best instructors you could imagine.
The difference, I suspect, between our own school and that of the Gates mentality, it that onr school evolved from necessary political circumstances and his were top down reform. Nobody ever grew corn tassel down. It comes up from the soil.
Yes. You’ve got that right about Gates.
Small schools can be great. But larger schools are economical and can work well too. I do not mean overcrowded schools, however. There are a lot of overcrowded high schools in the country and communities trying to figure out how to pay for new schools.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Roy. Glad to hear you have a good teaching situation..
My kids attended a small high school too. I think small schools are fine. They’re just not the magical miracle that will instantly save education, as imagined by Bill Gates at one time. (And there’s the bigger issue of his wielding his billions to impose his whims, uninformed and unstudied, as an experiment on children and teens.)
In some of the schools that were broken into small schools with Gates’ money, students found that they suddenly had only 1/4 of the foreign language options, elective options, AP options etc. available to them, so that was one obvious problem. Some San Francisco high schools used a variation on that to create “pathways,” schools within schools, without actually breaking off from the rest of the school. That has been popular and successful — but not the magical miracle that compensates for the ills of poverty and so forth, as Gates imagined.
Thanks again, Caroline. Right on from everything I read in the past…much of it which probably came from you.
I remember especially the criticism surrounding the loss of classes. And this is somewhat similar to XQ super schools.
The so-called claim for innovation with XQ, often the same with charters, is the intense focus on an area of study. While this may sound intriguing, it would seem to shortchange young people from a rounded curriculum.
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Can’t agree with #1. I’ve not seen the supposed research so please provide some. As a morning person, as far as I’m concerned the only thing holding HS students back from being functional in the morning is late going to sleep times. Put down/take out all the technological devices, including TV out of their rooms and allow them to actually fall asleep instead of passing out from exhaustion.
What little I’ve read of those studies a while back I’ve not been impressed so I’d like to see the latest on the supposed rationale and benefits of late starting.
National Sleep Foundation cites a lot of different studies. I do think teens tend to be more awake in the evening. Seems like something we could research better. Some places are adopting later start times for teens. Thanks, Duane. It’s important to always question.
This…it came out just a few days ago: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/01/letting-teens-sleep-in-would-save-the-country-roughly-9-billion-a-year/
I only know about one of the schools: IowaBIG. These kids attend a “regular” school for half the day and work together the other half of the day. I really appreciated that their video clip included the voices of teachers and students. At least 9 times during the show someone said, “Thank a Teacher” for your success. As a retired educator, I also respect the fact that they cut right to the chase when they said, “Do you know your school board members? If not, you should run for school board.”
Painting anything with only one brush does not work. IowaBIG is a model that is being replicated by other schools without any “corporate” dollars.
Without corporate dollars? Who’s funding it? Taxpayers?
Iowa has always had great schools.
Yes. They get school board members to sell what they want. This repeatedly happens with privatization.
I’d like to know if they will continue to fund teachers working in museums. Reformers always act like they love teachers. Time will unfortunately tell.
But I’m just grumpy. All that hyper glitz gave me headache. Also, it’s interesting that they hype the arts when so many poor schools no longer have the arts.
Hi, I am a former student from IowaBIG and I’m here to answer you questions as well as I can.
Firstly, IowaBIG is the best thing to happen to me and anyone who attends, however a lot of the teachers in the traditional schools are terrified of what the future of IowaBIG looks like, and I dont blame them. This is new, this is weird, and no one has done it the way we do it before. We don’t know how it will play out. We do know that IowaBIG has been SO successful that we have expanded, adding three more locations across the state of Iowa.
The founding principal of the school is community. We are a community school district, right? So include the community for god’s sake! At IowaBIG if you want to do something, step one is to find a community partner. Beyond that, if you want to start your own IowaBIG the first thing you have to do is spend at least one year just going through the community and asking them what they want from their schools. Secondly, how do you take the community’s needs and use them to teach the standards?
At IowaBIG we moitor our students every hour of work they put in, or at least we try. The ‘teachers’ (Who are qualified, yes. Who are not only intelligent, but truly smart, yes. Who have acchieved at least their masters, yes. Some whom acchieved their doctorate, yes. Who are more qualified than most teachers, in my opinion, yes.) have a couple hour meeting every morning to go through every student and discuss their accomplishments at the school and outside of the school. They then take these accomplishments and see if they pair up with a standard. If they loosely pair with a standard, that is a 1 (out of 4), and if it pairs directly to a standard, that is called demonstration 1, and is a 2 (out of 4). You see, at IowaBIG we don’t test our students at all. Tests are too easy for students to BS. You have to hold the student acountable for their own education and their own assesment, so for a student to get a 4 out of 4 or an ‘A’ they have to demonstrate a standard 4 times.
Let me explain. If I want to get credit for computer science, then I sign up for the class and join a computer science project. This project can take on many forms, but in my case it was making a smart recycling bin for the NewBo area (a local schopping and cultural district in the city, right next to the school) that linked to a rewards card that could be redeemed at local shops, restaurants, and theatres. I piggy backed on a past students project called the Blendcard, which created a single rewards card for the entire cooridoor area. Eventually, I had programmed a smart recycling bin that monitored how much was being recycled and by who. This then was monitored by a teacher who mentored the project and was responsible for reporting my progress at the teacher’s meetings. Through this project, I had written proposals to the city, to the community, and to the NewBo Market, as well as written thousands of lines of code. Right there, I have demonstrated all the standards for writing, public communications, and computer science, but thats not enough to get an A. Evertything is then taken and maticulously analyzed and the teachers decide, under their professional opinion, how many times I demonstrated each standard. If I attempted to demonstrate a standard, but fell flat, I got a 1/4. If I correctly deomstrated a standard once I got a 2/4. If I correctly deomstrated a standard twice I got a 3/4, and subsequently If I correctly deomstrated a standard three times I got a 4/4, ultimately checking off that standard and bringing me one step closer to getting credit in that class.
I would love to type further and explain it all, but I simply do not have the time at the moment, as a full time college student. However, if you would like to know more, please ask!
PS: I am simply an alum of the school, and I do not speak directly for the school. I have given many informational talks to superintendents from across the United States as well as to numerous business people who wanted to partner with IowaBIg and start a project with our students, so I am very knowledgeable on the inner workings of the school, but I certainly do not know it all. Also please know that this is a generalization of the true nuances and complexities of the school, however it lays a functional basic understanding on how and why this is a legitamate schoolint method.
PPS: Nancy, no one likes a hater, so stop hating. What do you have to proove anyways? Also, school hasn’t fundamentally changed for years, We have put a lot of research into how to teach, but yet we wtill send our kids to go sit in a prison for six 50 minute periods while being talked at by a teacher who barely understands the curriculum themselves.
“No one likes a hater?” I don’t recall using the word hate in any of my writings and resent be told that’s what I do.
I oppose XQ Super schools, and your assumption that public schools haven’t changed is ridiculous.
My proof is that I was an actual teacher, university prepared, who worked in REAL public schools for many years. Fund them and the teachers who work in them and miracles happen. They’ve happened for years.
Iowa had great public schools, by the way, some of the best in the nation. We don’t need wealthy individuals to destroy our schools. Ask who the real haters are here.
I’m going to still say you. In your response, you never applied any of the basic theories of critical thought. The issue is not public schools, big money, or technology, it seems to be you. In your response, you never once used emergence theory, critical thinking, or systems thinking. These are the basic ways of extrapolating information, analyzing, and forming a constructive response. Your response is simply a nonsensical jarble of emotion and opinion, no logic.
Now, to respond to what you said.
“‘No one likes a hater?’ I don’t recall using the word hate in any of my writings and resent be told that’s what I do.”
Firstly, yes, you are being a hater. The basis of your platform is to form a stigma and prejudice around alternative schooling. You’re being a hater.
“My proof is that I was an actual teacher, university prepared, who worked in REAL public schools for many years. Fund them and the teachers who work in them and miracles happen. They’ve happened for years.”
My proof is in the logic and understanding. Even my traditional school teachers tell me that education has been the same for hundreds of years. It is a commonly known fact here in Iowa that we need to change the way we teach, fundamentally. We all recognize that miracles happen, but not every student leaves as a ‘miracle.’ At IowaBIG, I will go as far to say that any student who enters the school leaves with a little bit of ‘miracle.’ We have proven, with the help of researchers, that we increase the feeling of self-worth in our students as well as their efficacy, or the feeling that they can change the world.
While I don’t want to invalidate your experience as a teacher, you seem to be neglecting the fact that we simply aren’t getting more money for public schooling, and that the current model of schooling does a terrible job at preparing our students on how to handle modern technology in a healthy, productive manner. We either need to start relying on the community for direct funding of the school’s endeavors, or we need to turn our schools into direct for-profit machines. We might disagree on a lot, but I think that we can both agree that turning our schools into blatant corporations is not the solution. Secondly, traditional schools currently try to incorporate modern technology, but the current method is hard to understand, does a terrible job on assessing students, and leaves students hating the productive and useful aspects of technology and loving the harmful and hateful outputs, such as social media and this blog.
“Iowa had great public schools by the way, some of the best in the nation. We don’t need wealthy individuals to destroy our schools. Ask who the real haters are here.”
IowaBIG was started by a physics teacher and a math teacher, not a corporation. IowaBIG does not care about making a profit. IowaBIG is public and open to anyone across four districts. IowaBIG, nor I, have not once said that public school was bad, just that it is broken and we’re trying to fix it.
Maybe instead of saying our way of fixing it is wrong, and not truly explaining why just pointing at people with money and saying they’re the problem, you try to solve the problem yourself! Once you do that, then I will be open to discuss.
You say, “The issue is not public schools, big money, or technology,” yet that’s exactly what it is!
If you’re not open to discussion, why are you posting on my blog? Look, you will get people to debate with you if you don’t attack them. I go out of my way to work with those who disagree with me. But no one likes to be attacked.
I don’t trust XQ Super Schools. I’ve written about it. And I also disagree with you. I don’t hate you, but I don’t agree with you.
I’m sorry. I see now that you are a student. But you are still making a lot of judgement calls for not being an educator.
XQ Super Schools is critical of democratic public schools in America. Many of these schools have been defunded for years. The fear is that XQ is charterizing (converting to charter schools) these schools and destroying the teaching profession. And they use the word “transformation” which today means disruption and technology.
Considering who started this initiative, I think those of us who support traditional public schools should be concerned.
Hi Andrew,
I would love to pick your brain on the IowaBIG schools and Community school model you mention. I have so many questions!!
I am a mom with kids in high school and I am trying to wrap my head around how this XQ system works.
So, if a student has to demonstrate use of standard 4 times to get a 4/4, and it is up to the teacher to determine when a standard is met… isn’t that pretty subjective? I am sure there are some amazing projects (like yours that you describe) but what happens when a student doesn’t meet all the standards (based in teacher opinion) – does the student fail? And if your project rocks— you went above and beyond, but your classmate Jimmy technically met all 4 standards but skated by with very little effort compared to you, Would he get the same 4/4 of grade? I guess I am not seeing how this is scaleable or how colleges /employers can tell what students know/ have learned. Does that make senss?
And you said students are accountable for their own learning. Does the teacher actually teach subjects? ie: Math and Science Lessons? Or no?
Last question if you don’t mind. Community ? How is Community involved? Do you mean medical care or social services ? Or do you mean apprenticeship programs or mentoring? And does EVERY student get connected with community? Do students get to pick heir projects and their community involvement somehow?
How does Special Ed fit into XQ?
Thanks in advance for your patience with me. Hoping you can help explain.
Cheri
Great questions, Cheri. Thank you.
As a parent of two students at one of the XQ Super Schools, DaVinci RISE High, I can honestly say it changed my children’s lives. They went from hating school to enjoying school which has prompted growth in every aspect of their lives. Perhaps contact Kari Croft, the principal at RISE High for a better insight into the workings of the XQ Super School project, especially the work being done at DaVinci RISE High. Students are truly turning around as a result of the school and amazing RISE High staff.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=da%20vinci%20rise%20high%20school
Originally the program was a modified independent study program targeting students who, for whatever reason were not doing well in large classroom environments. or due to outside commitments such as work, being a parent, student-athletes with a rigorous training schedule, etc.,… and truly met the student where they were. I watched first hand as RISE High put together an individual study plan for each and every student while at the same time incorporating them into the classroom environment. It has been amazing watching how the combination of 1-1 and small group learning has and is transforming students and their lives. As a result of the XQ Super School grant RISE now has two locations, both with a waiting list and also focuses on students in the foster care system, inconsistent home environments and homelessness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn4wk0cSEqE
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=da%20vinci%20rise%20high%20school
Due to the success, my children experienced I referred 2 other families and they too are noticing the change in their students and thrilled with the school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOa_N9sigu8
The staff at DaVinci RISE High is beyond supportive even going to the point of attending my daughter’s dance class and dance performances in order to support her and her quest to become a professional dancer. (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154660958841144&set=pcb.10154660967296144&type=3&theater)
In attending XQ Super School events and being a part of the XQ Super School community I can honestly say lives are being changed in a way for these students the public school system in California was not able to do. These students have gone from hating school, being lost in the shuffle and large classroom sizes to becoming advocates for their own education and are soaring. Public schools with large classroom environments work for some students but it does not work for all and I think that is one of the points of the XQ Super School Project — providing additional choices and helping parents to find what works. RISE High works and has been life-changing for all those involved!
http://www.davincischools.org/about/contact/
http://www.risehs.org/davincischools/
Not everyone shares your enthusiasm. Many of us support real public schools run by real educators. It would be one thing to start a private school to try out something different. It’s another thing to harshly criticize real public schools that have been intentionally de-funded for years in order to privatize them. Public schools are owned by the people and are democratically run. XQ Super Schools are a threat to this process. And while you might like them, we have no idea what your children are learning and how well prepared they will be for college and career. Let us know how that turns out in ten years. I wouldn’t want to take that chance. But thank you for your comments. I always appreciate those who disagree with me.
Oh, my goodness. 10 years? How about NOW? Their NOW will carry them into their future and since attending/currently attending RISE, their future and all the students thus far at RISE have more promising futures. If you’d take the time to view the videos included in my previous post or speak to the team about the school you’d have an understanding of how successful this school program has been for the students.
Since you do not know what the curriculum is at RISE or any of the XQ schools perhaps contact Kari Croft the principal at RISE to discuss the curriculum at RISE as well as the XQ Schools in general. I don’t know about the other schools but RISE High is making their students RISE and it’s amazing to be a part of it first hand! I, as a parent, would not have wanted to take a chance of continuing on the downward spiral my children had fallen into academically. Children learn differently and RISE takes the individual child, meets them where they are and helps them RISE! Yes, my enthusiasm is great because this school helped my children discover their greatness academically and that discovery has poured over into every aspect of their lives.
This school is changing lives NOW which will help each and every student reach their full potential in years to come.
Now, that being said I also have friends making great strides with their students at public schools and they are to be commended as well. (https://www.cbsnews.com/video/saving-students-with-film-in-south-l-a/) Unfortunately, for my children and many others the public school system is not working so I’m thankful we have options and thankful I discovered RISE!
http://laschoolreport.com/on-the-rise-first-graduating-class-of-award-winning-high-school-for-foster-and-homeless-youth-get-their-diplomas/
https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/analysis/rising-high-los-angeles-school-aimed-disconnected-youth-expands
https://apch.org/what-we-do/educational-services/riseatapch/
That is unfortunately your opinion. Unlike public schools that have been tested, too much actually, XQ Super Schools are unproven. I am not being critical here. Check on my website about High Tech High which many thought were great schools as well. Unfortunately, they are not consistent in their approach to education.
XQ Super Schools are definitely critical of public schools. They want to “reimagine” them. They criticize them as having never changed in years. That’s not true and there’s a reason they talk like this. For years corporations have meddled with public education to end public schools. Read more of my blog and others.
Other than that, I wish you well with whatever schooling you choose for your children. If you like XQ Super Schools than I hope they work for your child. Just recognize their motives toward public schooling is to be critical of them.
Lisha,
I love everything that’s happening at RISE! I’ve had a chance to study their curriculum format, and it’s extremely promising. Like any new system, it has its kinks, but it has a ton of potential! Also, please know that even though it might not be perfect yet (or ever), that doesn’t mean that the school isn’t breeding brilliance in our kids, and in our future generations. Above I posted an intro to the IowaBIG curriculum, another XQ Super School. I want you to go ahead and give it a read and let me know what you think. It’s nice to have an unbiased, open mind logically analyze your approaches and refine your methods. Two brains thinking critically is better than one!