Call them the schools that Apple built. Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, has donated $50 million to a project that aims to "reimagine" U.S. high schools.
Powell Jobs will also serve as chair of the board of directors of XQ, whose "Super School Project" wants to redesign high school education for a more tech-focused, innovative world. The focus is on teaching students "agile and flexible intelligence" rather than rote memorization and what they consider outdated ways of learning.
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"In the last hundred years, America has gone from a Model T to a Tesla and from a switchboard to a smartphone, but our public high schools have stayed frozen in time," XQ said in a message on its homepage. "We believe American ingenuity can and must move education forward. This is a challenge, open to all, to build the Super Schools that will lead the way."
The XQ project is the latest from Emerson Collective, a philanthropic group founded by Powell Jobs.
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XQ will collect proposals through November 15 and announce winners in August 2016. XQ will use the $50 million fund from Powell Jobs "to support at least five schools over the next five years to turn their ideas into real Super Schools."