Trying to be Helpful, Yet Ineffective

Our personalized learning lab school got close to being named a XQ Super School back in 2016. XQ Super Schools were unveiled by the XQ Institute, a group financed by Laurene Powell Jobs. 18 schools, serving 14- to 18-year-olds, were selected based on what effective learning models should look like for high schoolers moving forward. The original 18 schools shared a total of $102 million in prize money. Today, the XQ Institute works in 28 states.

The XQ Institute just released a new report titled “The Future of High School.” The report argues that,

“Today’s world requires an entirely new kind of educational experience – one that traditional high schools were never designed to deliver.”

“We live in an age of self-driving taxis, blockchain, and renewed interest in space exploration. The public launch of ChatGPT placed a powerful form of generative artificial intelligence (AI) within the reach of every American.”

“The stage is shifting rapidly. Our young people are growing up at a time when the economy and workforce are in constant flux. And high schools must keep pace.”

“’What do we need to know when we leave our high school doors?’ asked XQ CEO Russlynn Ali. Math, English and science are still important, she said.”

“’But layered on top of that, we need to be critical thinkers,’ Ali said. ‘We need to be able to collaborate. We need adaptability. We need these skills that will help us succeed in life, no matter what direction we choose after we leave high school.’”

Jobs and Ali’s XQ Institute has met with mixed results over the past ten years. Although individual schools have shown outstanding growth, scalability has continued to be challenging.

Now, XQ is changing its strategic direction by ending their work with schools directly while beginning to work at the state level to achieve high school improvement at scale.

“’States have more responsibility and authority over their schools than certainly in recent memory, if not in my lifetime,’ Ali said. ‘They must be the locus of change.’”

“States are mixed however, XQ reports in the new study, in how they are succeeding in meeting 10 goals XQ considers key to school innovation. XQ met with school leaders across the country to create the goals – and then researched how much progress each state and Washington, D.C. has made toward them:

46 states have met the goal of offering work experience, such as internships, as credit toward high school diplomas;

38 states give every student a chance to earn college credit before graduating, by taking Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or college classes;

32 states give schools the ability to award students class credit under a mastery or competency system showing they know the material, instead of just attending a class;

32 states have identified key skills students need to learn for the future, including non-academic skills XQ has made a major part of its work, such as teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving. States often created a ‘Portrait of a Graduate’ spelling these out;

Just 10 states met six of the goals and no states met all 10, though 31 met at least four. Two states – Alaska and Florida – met only two of the goals;

Two of XQ’s goals – finding ways to measure how well students have learned interpersonal skills and thinking skills, then showing those on report cards – haven’t been realized by any state.”

“XQ plans to track changes and updates the report every two years for the next decade.”

“’I think of these as a start, definitely not a finish line,’ Ali said.”

When an organization like the XQ Institute, funded by a wealthy philanthropist, changes their strategic direction away from schools to policy development involving states, that can mean only one thing –

XQ has realized that trying to change the American high school on a meaningful scale is a difficult, and possibly an impossible, task.

And here’s a news flash for Jobs, Ali, and the rest of the XQ team – changing state policy and seeing that policy impact practice inside schools and classrooms is an equally challenging task.

The problem with the XQ Institute, and other groups like them, is that they think they can work within the traditional system to enact change regarding the way young learners become smarter and stronger. This is a failed philosophy.

XQ and others would be rise to cut bait with the traditional K-12 system and begin working to support learning organizations like microschools, learning pods, homeschoolers, and other out-of-school enterprises to create a new learning system for kids.

Any other activity is just a waste of time and money.

Til tomorrow. SVB