A proposal from a group in Oakland was one of the winners in last year’s XQ Super School Project competition, aimed at reinventing the American high school. Now backers of the Oakland plan have announced that they will scrap the project.
Oakland was among 10 locations across the country selected in September to be part of the Super School Project to revolutionize the high school experience. Nearly 700 teams competed in the national competition, which was sponsored by Palo Alto heiress Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Summit Public Schools, which operates a chain of charter schools, with support from the Oakland school district and Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office, submitted a winning proposal for a charter school focusing on personal learning and real-world experiences. The goal was to open the new school at the California College of the Arts on Broadway in Rockridge in fall 2018.
But the effort started to fall apart over the last several months and was ultimately abandoned in recent weeks, The Chronicle has learned. Now, Summit leaders will use the money for one of their existing charter schools in Daly City.
Alexander Russo has a feature article about the Super School project competition in the Spring 2017 issue of Education Next.
— Education Next
