‘Super School Bus’ dares community to rethink high school

CEDAR RAPIDS - A bright yellow school bus is parked outside NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids this week, but there's much more than regular old seats inside.

Instead, the bus is tricked out with touchable iPads, a video booth and an interactive wall displaying testimonials from educators and students from around the country.

The bus is on a road trip from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and is stopped in Cedar Rapids to engage with community members about how they think high schools could be reinvented.

The bus belongs to the XQ Institute, an organization focused on creating new learning opportunities in the U.S.

'We're not being prescriptive,” said XQ deputy campaign manager Sacha Ostern. 'We're asking communities around the country what they think.”

XQ launched the Super School Project in September, when it asked educators and students to submit ideas about how they would rethink high school.

About 700 ideas, including one from local program Iowa BIG, flowed in. So far, the proposals have been whittled down to 385, and at least five of those will receive $10 million grants from the Emerson Collective, an organization run by Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Job's widow. Jobs is also on the XQ Institute's board of directors.

Grant winners will be announced in early August - and Iowa BIG still is in the running.

'They look at us as part of this story of re-imagining high school,” said Troy Miller, Iowa BIG's director of strategic partnerships. 'And that's flattering.”

If Iowa BIG is chosen as one of the grant winners, Miller said the funds would be used to scale the program up to accommodate more students.

About 100 students were in Iowa BIG this year, from Cedar Rapids, College Community, Mount Vernon and Linn-Mar school districts. Students in the program, which started in 2013 and is sponsored by The Gazette Company, earn class credits through student-driven community projects.

'Scaling is a supply-demand thing,” Miller said. 'We know we're on the very front end of people learning about Iowa BIG and understanding what it is.”

Other educators and students around the country came up with ideas for outdoor classrooms, self-directed curriculum and schools that hone the arts - to name a few, Ostern said.

'It really runs the spectrum of what's out there today,” he said.

Organizers said about 300 people visited the Super School Bus on Thursday, learning about issues in today's education system and brainstorming ways to fix it.

The bus will be in NewBo again on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Haily Whitmore, a 20-year-old Marion High grad, recorded a testimonial in the bus about wanting to see high schools ease pressure on high school students.

'High school should be about finding out who you are and experiencing new things,” she said.

A parent of two current Cedar Rapids students, Paul Habhab, also shared his thoughts about the education system.

'Everyone learns differently,” he said. 'So why do we all have to learn within this box?”

A 15-year-old Jefferson High student, Keirstyn Bauer said she liked the idea of doing more hands-on projects, instead of paper-and-pencil classwork.

Younger kids also boarded the bus, eager to play with the gadgets inside. Denzil Green, 9, and his sister Lily, 6, explored XQ's colorful website on an iPad.

Once they get to high school, their father Anthony Green said he hopes they'll be able to connect the skills they learn in high school to a desired job.

'I want them to be career-ready instead of just college-ready,” he said.