PROVIDENCE – Twenty Rhode Island high schools received grant awards from the R.I. Department of Education and national nonprofit XQ Institute as part of a new statewide initiative to reimagine the high school experience, the department announced Tuesday.
The initiative, called XQ+RI Challenge, invited all public high schools in the Ocean State to “rethink” high school to “expand educational equity” and preparing current students for the future, RIDE said.
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“The challenge was designed with community, equity, and innovation at its core,” RIDE said in a statement, noting 32 high schools submitted proposals. “It helped schools deeply and authentically engage educators, families, and students in this transformative high school redesign process.”
Providence-based Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts and Ponaganset High School in Glocester will each receive the largest grant the program offers – a two-year, $500,000 grant – and be part of the national XQ Community of Practice group. RIDE said Trinity Academy’s proposed redesign focuses on the “deliberate cultivation of the Artist Mindset,” which uses arts as a way to drive “academic, career, collegiate and social-emotional excellence.”
Ponaganset High School, RIDE said, plans to transform its culture toward creating high expectations for students by developing “new course pathways” that will place students “at the center of the educational experience,” as well as using space creatively.
360 High School and Providence and Woonsocket High School will each receive $120,000 XQ Accelerator Awards for their respective initiatives. 360 High School hopes to implement a strategy that will reconstruct instructional models and “expands differentiation, particularly with multilingual learners,” RIDE said. “Woonsocket High School, meanwhile, looks to rebuild its classroom culture and build educator capacity “to support student agency, rigor and mastery through extensive partnerships.”
Sixteen schools will receive $20,000 XQ Momentum Awards for looking into their data and confronting equity issues, and will also receive support from webinars and access to various resources. Those schools are:
- Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School, Providence
- Barrington High School
- Chariho Regional High School, Richmond
- William B. Cooley Sr. High School, Providence
- E3 Academy, Providence
- East Providence High School
- Evolutions High School, Providence
- Highlander Charter School, Warren
- Hope High School, Providence
- The Learning Community Charter School, Central Falls
- The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, Providence
- Hope High School, Bristol
- Mount Pleasant High School, Providence
- Scituate High School
- Smithfield High School
- YouthBuild Prep, Providence
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
