Innovating High School: Race, Capitalism, and Technology in the Super School Competition

• In Event: Every Move We Make: Philanthropy Across the Educational Ecology

Abstract

The XQ Institute, funded by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, began with the Super School Competition, awarding ten schools $10 million each for their designs to “rethink high school.” Unlike venture philanthropists of the recent past, XQ claimed agnosticism about the model; their only focus was innovation. They devoted millions of dollars to a cultural campaign, what they termed “movement building,” including an hour-long star-studded special that aired across all major broadcast channels. This paper will use discourse analysis of that show to understand what version of innovation XQ is promoting and what ideologies, particularly as they relate to racial capitalism, racial formation, and technology, are supported, created and reshaped by their vision for high school reform.

Author

• Brett Gardiner Murphy, Graduate Center - CUNY