Memphis is one of 14 scheduled stops for a national bus tour inviting communities to rethink America’s high schools as part of a contest backed by the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
The XQ Super School Bus is scheduled to roll into Memphis June 13 for a series of events and workshops through June 15.
The bus tour is designed to encourage students, parents, teachers and community members to explore innovative ways to improve high schools in an age of innovation.
The bus stop is in conjunction with the application by a group of Memphis stakeholders to Laurene Jobs’ XQ Super School Challenge, which will award $10 million each to five winners announced this August.
The Memphis group wants to turn the proposed Crosstown High School into a model for education for the 21st century. The team’s submission is one of 348 out of nearly 700 applicants to advance this spring to the next round of the competition.
Crosstown High would be located in midtown Memphis in the Crosstown Concourse complex, now under development. As initially proposed, the 500-student school would be a college prep program operated by an independent governing board through a contract between Shelby County Schools and Christian Brothers University in Memphis. The school would open in fall 2017 and would serve students who perform on or above grade level on state tests.
Crosstown High is backed by several local philanthropic groups and Superintendent Dorsey Hopson.
The school board got its first look at the concept in January and urged Hopson to make sure any designs reflect the district’s student population, particularly related to low-income families. The initial proposal would require at least 35 percent of students to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, compared to 80 percent of the district’s students.
Disclosure: Chalkbeat receives support from the Emerson Collective, which launched XQ.
Watch XQ’s video about the bus tour below.