Design-Lab High School has won a $10 million grant from an organization seeking to reimagine high schools in the nation.
The grant came from the XQ Super Schools project. XQ’s chair of the board of its directors is
Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs.
Support for the grant came from a variety of sources that included parents and Gov. Jack Markell.
Design Lab was one of 10 schools throughout the nation to receive the grant.
Design-Lab describes itself as a “tuition-free, public charter school for students in grades 9-12. The school opened in August 2015 at 179 Stanton Christiana Rd, south of Newark and near Christiana Mall.
The school uses design thinking that “continually learns, builds and improves while encouraging its students to do the same.”
That can include “working on prototypes, podcasts or virtual museum exhibits, an academically rigorous loop of learning will prepare its students (including many first-generation college-goers) for the challenges ahead,” the school stated.
The grant will be a boost to charter schools in Delaware.
Charters schools are responsible for start-up expenses. Once in operation, the schools receive funding for students that is the equivalent to the per pupil allocation in the school district where the institution is located.
Charter schools have been under fire from a variety of sources that include teachers unions and a few legislators for operational problems that have led to some closings and allegedly skimming the cream” of top students and leaving public schools with remaining enrollees.
