Latest news with #NationalMicroschoolingCenter
Forbes
02-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Microschools Go Macro And Provide More Learning Choices For Families
Students at home-based microschool working on a school project. 'Microschools aren't so micro anymore,' writes Linda Jacobson in The 74. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of these K-12 learning models. They became a refuge for families facing school closures and challenges with remote learning. Their expansion is another important development in America's K-12 education choice landscape. Microschools are often described as today's version of the one-room schoolhouse. They typically consist of small, mixed-age student groups. They operate in traditional school buildings, homes, churches, and commercial spaces. They emphasize customized curricula, experiential learning, and a focus on mastery of content over standardized testing. They take different organizational forms, including learning centers that follow a state's homeschooling rules, private schools that charge tuition, a single charter school or a member of a charter network, or a traditional public school. Their learning calendars vary from being open year-round to part-time to following a typical academic year. The National Microschooling Center's 2025 report, American Microschools: A Sector Analysis, surveyed 800 currently operating or soon-to-open microschools, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They serve 2% of the U.S. student population, which equates to approximately 750,000 students nationwide (though some estimates calculate that as many as 2 million students are enrolled in these schools). They can be found in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. The median number of students per nonpublic microschool is 22, while the median number for traditional public or charter microschools is higher at 36 students, with some institutions accommodating up to 100 students. Most of these schools are led by current or former educators, as 86% of microschool founders have an educational background, up from 71% in 2024. More than half (53%) of microschools report serving as learning centers for homeschooling children, private schools (30%), and public charter schools (5%). The primary sources of funding for microschools are tuition (61%) and state-provided school choice funds (38%). Nearly half of them (46%) charge annual tuition between $5,000 and $10,000, while 26% charge less than $5,000. Over two-thirds (65%) offer discounts or a sliding scale based on family need. The median cost to educate one child is $6,500 in currently operating schools. When currently operating schools are asked to describe their educational approach by selecting all that apply, the top four choices are project-based learning (72%), self-directed learning (65%), social-emotional learning (58%), and faith-based instruction (29%). When asked to describe their curriculum and select all that apply, a majority reported one purchased from a company (60%), one created by a person at the school (52%), one from on line learning tools (51%), and one used by other teachers (50%). These schools typically serve younger children, with 84% serving children ages 5 to 11. More than four out of 10 (43%) report that their students have previously attended traditional district schools, followed by homeschooling (30%), private schools (9%), and charter schools (9%). One of the defining characteristics of microschools is their ability to serve a diverse student population. Survey respondents were asked to select all the categories that apply from eight different student populations. The four highest categories were serving children who are neurodiverse (74%), children performing below grade level (63%), children who experienced emotional trauma (50%), and children with other special needs (46%). Despite their growth and success, microschools face challenges related to accountability and accreditation. Many operate without formal accreditation, and oversight varies significantly across states. Nearly eight out of 10 (78%) are not accredited in their state, a decrease from 84% in 2024. Eight in 10 (80%) are interested in seeking accreditation. The microschool sector's diversity of educational programs produces different approaches to measuring the impact of their work on students. When asked to select all that apply from a list of 10 different approaches, the four most common ways of measuring effectiveness were observation-based reports (65%), portfolios (55%), track learning mastery (51%), and formal assessments (43%). When asked to identify the most essential desired student outcome, microschool founders named growth in nonacademic learning as the most important outcome. As microschools continue to evolve, they present both opportunities and challenges for the American K-12 education system. Their growth reflects a demand for personalized, flexible, and community-based learning environments. To sustain this momentum, there is a pressing need for frameworks and practical guidance on how to do this. One example of this is the Public Microschool Playbook, written by three former K-12 superintendents and advocates--Deborah Gist, Tom Vander Ark, and Devin Vedicka. It provides detailed information on how to start and operate public microschools that are funded with existing K-12 per-pupil dollars. These can include new stand-alone microschools or different learning options within existing K-12 public schools. 'Microschools are not just a trend, they're a turning point. This is not about boutique innovation,' write those three former school superintendents in an article appearing in The 74. While COVID-19 propelled the expansion of these K-12 learning models, they are now an essential part of America's K-12 education choice landscape.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Exclusive Report: As Movement Grows, Microschools Aren't So ‘Micro' Anymore
In 2021, Tiffany Blassingame, who comes from a family of educators, opened her own school in a building attached to a Baptist church in downtown Decatur, Georgia. She teaches 18 K-5 students who come from across Atlanta for a Christian-based curriculum with a social justice lens. But now she's got company. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Down a hallway lined with artwork, backpacks and storage bins, there's a small Montessori school for 3- to 6-year-olds. A middle and high school operates on the same floor. And across from Blassingame's two classrooms, Maya Corneille runs Nia School, which serves children with autism and apraxia, a disorder that affects movement and speech. 'Everyone has their own niche and strength,' said Corneille, a former college psychology professor. Together they demonstrate how the microschool movement, which took off during the pandemic, continues to grow and adapt to students' needs. Microschools are also less 'micro' than they were last year, according to the latest analysis of the sector from the National Microschooling Center, shared exclusively with The 74. In 2024, the median number of students in a typical microschool was 16. That figure has jumped to 22 — a reflection of the increased experience of school founders, said Don Soifer, CEO of the center. Some now serve as many as 100 students. Related The center's report provides a comprehensive look at the trend as it continues to mature. Microschools — small schools that typically operate out of homes, commercial spaces or churches — now serve an estimated 2% of the U.S. student population, or about 750,000 students. Current or former teachers, or those with administrative experience, are increasingly running the programs. Eighty-six percent of founders have an education background, compared with 71% last year. But some aren't leaving public schools to join the movement. Charter microschools and those affiliated with districts are generally larger, with a median size of 36 students, according to the report. They include WIN Academy, a project of BridgeValley Community and Technical College in South Charleston, West Virginia. This year, 20 seniors graduated from the charter microschool, where students earn college credit toward degrees in nursing or manufacturing. 'The families we serve just see the huge amount of money they are saving on college tuition and the incredible learning opportunity this is for their kids,' said Casey Sacks, the college's president. With small groups, real-world experiences and a personalized approach, the school, she said, 'exemplifies many of the core elements of microschooling.' In another development, the Indiana Charter School Board recently granted a charter to a microschool network within the 1,200-student Eastern Hancock district, outside Indianapolis. Superintendent George Philhower expects one to three sites to launch this fall, with more opening across the state in the coming years. 'There's a growing number of families looking for something in between the traditional public school experience and homeschooling,' he said. 'Some are already homeschooling and doing amazing work, but they're also looking for community, guidance, or access to certified teachers and additional resources.' The vast majority of microschools operate outside the public system, but the expansion of state-funded programs supporting private schools, like education savings accounts, has further fueled their spread. Primer, a for-profit microschool network, currently has schools in Florida and Arizona, and will add schools in Alabama this fall. Next year, the company plans to expand to Texas and add four to five states the year after, said Lisa Tarshis, head of the Primer Foundation, which provides financial aid to families and support to schools in the network. With ESA funds fueling growth, she added that some microschool entrepreneurs are replicating their programs. 'Once you get it down, it's not that hard to open a satellite campus or to bring on another teacher,' she said. 'Then you can become the owner and oversee these two schools.' Of the 800 schools represented in the center's survey sample, 38% receive state school choice funds, up from 32% in 2024. This fall, Blassingame's Ferguson School could be enrolling students on Georgia's new Promise Scholarship, a $6,500 ESA targeted to students who live in a zone with a failing school. Others, she said, may qualify for the state's separate ESA program for students with disabilities. ESAs make microschools 'more affordable for parents and financially sustainable for me,' said Blassingame, who is accustomed to offering discounts on her $9,000 annual tuition and working out payment arrangements when families struggle. 'I ask, 'How much can you pay?' But I have to be able to pay teachers and the rent.' Democratic critics argue that ESAs not only hurt public schools, but also offer false hope to the 1 in 5 students who attend school in rural areas. Those communities often don't have private options and the schools that exist may not provide transportation, the left-leaning Center for American Progress argued in a new report. Microschools, easier to launch than a typical brick-and-mortar school, provide an alternative, said Amar Kumar, CEO of the KaiPod network. Even choice-friendly states like Indiana and Ohio still have 'school choice deserts,' he said at a recent gathering in Atlanta for leaders running 'hybrid homeschools,' which often combine microschools with at-home learning. 'We can pass as many ESA programs as we want, but until we increase the supply of schools, we won't really have choice.' As more microschools tap public education funding, they're drawing increased scrutiny from organizations outside the sector. Whether motivated by curiosity or criticism, growing interest from researchers and policy experts is another sign of the model's expansion. At least three studies are underway to examine microschools and report student performance on some of the same measures public schools use, like iReady assessments and MAP tests from NWEA. 'There's a lot of appetite for figuring out how we measure outcomes without being spaces that are tailored 100% towards a standardized test,' said Jeffrey Imrich, CEO and co-founder of Rock by Rock, which sells project-based learning curriculum and materials, primarily to microschools and homeschoolers. The company is working with Mathematica, a research organization, on one of the studies. 'There's an interest in making sure kids are learning and growing, but the interest is in a set of outcomes that is broader than just a reading score.' But critics warn that the microschools still lack adequate government oversight. In a recent article, the Center for American Progress characterized the unconventional programs as potentially unsafe spaces that often 'bypass' building codes and are not required to follow civil rights laws, like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, even if they receive public funds. In a rebuttal, Soifer pushed back against the authors' call for greater accountability and locking into a federal definition of microschools. Founders in this 'many-flowers-bloom movement,' he said, already navigate 'complex and often arbitrary' regulations designed for large, traditional schools. For example, in March, the Arizona fire marshall told a microschool founder she would have to spend thousands of dollars for building upgrades even though local authorities had already approved the school's opening. After the libertarian Institute for Justice got involved, the state backed off. As with last year's report, founders getting ready to open schools say their number one need is understanding the rules and laws that apply to their programs. Related With Texas recently passing a voucher program, Soifer and others are closely watching how the microschool model fares in the nation's second largest state. Currently, he said, there's no reliable count of the number of Texas microschools. 'There are just too many that have been doing things under the radar for a long time,' he said. But if they want to serve students on ESAs, they'll have to meet the same requirements as other private schools. That means staying open for at least two years and getting accreditation. Earning accreditation continues to be a costly, and often insurmountable, barrier for many microschools. The process, which typically includes a financial audit, staff background checks and building inspections, can run up to $15,000. But most accrediting organizations haven't always been what Soifer calls 'microschool friendly.' Less than a quarter of microschools in his survey are accredited, but 80% percent said they would be interested in a process geared toward their non-traditional programs. At least one accrediting body, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, recently announced a pilot accreditation program for 'innovative school models.' Related The issue came up at the Atlanta conference, organized by the National Hybrid Homeschool Project at Kennesaw State University. 'Accreditation is like a four-letter word in this community,' said Sharon Masinelli, a lead science teacher at St. John the Baptist Hybrid School, outside Atlanta. She led a session describing why she sought recognition from Cognia, the nation's largest accrediting body. High schools, she said, wouldn't accept course credits for students leaving the hybrid school until it was accredited. Other microschools seek accreditation so they can accept students on ESAs, just like well-established private schools. Mitch Seabaugh, senior vice president of the Georgia Promise Scholarship, also spoke at the conference, inviting attendees to give their input on the new program. To Eric Wearne, who runs the Kennesaw project, the moment offered yet another sign that microschools had made it into the mainstream. Addressing the group the next day, he said, 'If you had told me that we would one day have a state official in a room full of school founders asking for advice, I would have lost money on that bet.'
Forbes
02-04-2025
- General
- Forbes
New School Models Embrace Smaller Size
It is tough to understate just how central a role scale has played in education reform. Starting more than a century ago, reformers looked to scale up schools, inventing institutions like the comprehensive high school to centralize student populations and broaden the offerings available to them. In this century, movements towards statewide teacher evaluation systems or even nationwide educational standards were massive in scale. Scale has been a part of the school choice movement as well. For a time, if a promising charter or private school model came onto the scene, the first question they were asked was 'can you scale up?' A school was not truly seen as successful unless it could open 5, 10, or 20 campuses. The tide has turned. Increasingly, parents, educators, philanthropists, and states themselves are looking to smaller learning environments. Organizations like the National Microschooling Center are tracking the growth in purposely small learning environments. The National Hybrid Schools Project is doing the same for hybrid homeschooling. According to a recent EdChoice/Morning Consult poll, 14% of parents state that they would like to have their child learn from home entirely, with either parents or a tutor working with them. Thirty-three percent of parents identified that they would like their child learning from home between one and four days per week. Thirty-five percent said that their child was either currently working with a tutor or that they were looking for a tutor for their child. I contributed a chapter to the new book School Rethink 2.0 (edited by Rick Hess, Michael Horn, and Julie Squire) looking at small scale school environments. These include homeschools, homeschool co-ops, hybrid homeschools, microschools, and tutoring. I identify four forces driving the creation of new, smaller school models. The wider availability of educational resources and the ability of learning management software to organize those resources into coherent lessons and units makes it much easier for parents or single educators to teach students on their own. Whereas in the past educational resources were expensive to obtain and limited in their offerings, the world really is an educator's oyster today. And, while there is a lot of administrative work to be done managing even a small number of students, technology is getting better at handling that. When talking to parents who enroll their children in hybrid homeschools (schools that offer formal classes part of the week and have students learn from home for the rest), it was interesting to see how many worked jobs with non-traditional hours. For nurses, doctors, realtors, car salespeople, and others, a non-traditional school schedule could actually work better than a traditional Monday to Friday, 8 to 3:30 schedule. As more and more professionals utilize flexible work schedules, more and more parents may look for flexible schooling schedules. It is much easier for a smaller school to be flexible than a larger one, a difference that can make smaller educational options more attractive. Historically, funders in the education reform space were more likely to support scalable school models (or models that were in the process of scaling). That is changing. In 2019, the Walton Family Foundation and Charles Koch Institute launched the VELA Education Fund to seed small educational entrepreneurs to launch schools and create other solutions. Educators did not have to serve thousands of students to get funded. At the time the book was published, VELA had awarded more than 2,500 small grants, and the number is surely higher now. (Full disclosure: I received funding from VELA for my research on hybrid homeschooling and the various organizations that I have worked for have received funding from both the Walton Family Foundation and Koch-related entities.) Perhaps the most transformative change in the past half-decade in favor of small school models has been the creation of Education Savings Account programs in states across the country. Extending public funding to parents in ways that is flexible allows them to find smaller environments and supplement any of their shortcomings with additional resources. Simply making tutoring providers, microschool operators, and hybrid schools eligible for support has been incredibly helpful for entrepreneurial educators looking to launch their schools or services. This is not to say that there are not headwinds. Technology is not all it's cracked up to be. As more and more parents and educators become skeptical of technology and more forthright about its limitations, what was seen as a limitless horizon of opportunity is becoming much more drawn in. The same is true for work schedules. As businesses rein in flexible work schedules and bring people back into the office for a traditional schedule, schools with alternative schedules could take a hit. Philanthropy is fickle and could return to desiring larger models. Parents' preferences could change too, directing their new state support to larger school models. All that said, it is clear that parents want learning environments where their children are known and understood. They don't want to see their children lost in the shuffle or slip through the cracks. Educators want the same. They don't want to be cogs in a big impersonal machine. These fundamental realities help explain the allure of smaller learning models.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Educators Learn Key Entrepreneurship Lessons in Launching Their Own Microschools
Giselle McClymont knew from second grade that she wanted to be a teacher. She went on to earn an education degree in college and taught in Florida's Broward County public elementary schools for six years before leaving the system in frustration in 2022. 'I just personally felt like I couldn't help each child,' said McClymont, noting that third grade testing demands and the pressure to teach to the test created frustration and stress for students and teachers alike. 'It took the joy out of teaching and learning.' McClymont became a stay-at-home mom and planned to homeschool her daughter, but she missed the classroom. In the fall of 2023, she began leading a learning pod with three children in her neighborhood. That was when she heard about microschools, or the intentionally small, low cost, often mixed-age learning communities that have gained widespread popularity in recent years. She was immediately attracted to microschooling's focus on flexibility and personalized learning, and knew for certain that she wanted to launch her own microschool. But where should she begin? Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Most microschool founders are teachers like McClymont who previously worked in conventional schools. According to a 2024 analysis by the National Microschooling Center, more than 70 percent of today's microschool operators are current or former licensed educators. These founders have deep knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy and a passion for teaching and learning, but most of them have never run a small business. They are looking for ways to bridge the gap between being an educator and an entrepreneur, and new microschool accelerator programs are helping them to do just that. 'Put me in a classroom anywhere and I can teach all day. I got that. I was looking for all those business tips and tricks,' said Tonya Kipe, founder of Kipe Academy in Polk City, Florida. A public elementary school teacher for more than a decade, Kipe grew her microschool from one student in January 2024 to 26 students today, including those with special learning needs. Participating in Launch Your Kind, a Florida-based nonprofit microschool accelerator, was a key part of Kipe Academy's growth. Related Created by former public school teacher Iman Alleyne in 2022, Launch Your Kind supports the development of new microschools — especially those that celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and joyful learning. After launching her own microschool, Kind Academy, in 2016, Alleyne wished she had an affordable, model-agnostic school accelerator program available to her to provide the business skills, entrepreneurial insights, and community support that she lacked. She wanted to streamline the startup process for new founders, enabling them to avoid common pitfalls and build sustainable small businesses. 'I teach them to take care of their teacher hat, but their business owner hat needs to come on too,' she said. The 10-week program provides online, cohort-style coaching for about a dozen new or aspiring microschool founders, and continued support thereafter. Through weekly check-ins and expert presentations, they learn the business of running a school, ranging from establishing policies and procedures and finding a suitable school location to setting tuition prices, exploring various revenue streams, and being fiscally responsible. Alleyne's goal is to help microschools flourish and grow, and she helps founders to merge their love of teaching with a keen sense of what it takes to run a successful enterprise. Most Launch Your Kind founders launch or expand their microschools within six months of participating in the program, with each cohort community remaining in close contact long after the program ends — including through an annual in-person retreat. Launch Your Kind's winter cohort begins later this month. For Kipe, participating in Launch Your Kind helped her to see that entrepreneurship can be a win-win for herself and the students she serves. 'We want to serve the community, but we're also a business,' Kipe realized. Like most of the Florida microschools that have participated in Launch Your Kind, Kipe Academy's students attend at reduced tuition rates thanks to the state's robust school choice programs that enable education dollars to follow students to their desired learning setting — including microschools and homeschooling centers. Family financial accessibility is an important priority for the microschool founders with whom Alleyne works. It's also Alleyne's priority with Launch Your Kind. 'I really wanted to put together an accelerator that would be at a price point that people could afford,' said Alleyne, who has received philanthropic support from organizations such as Stand Together Trust, Getting Smart, VELA, and the Yass Prize, which has helped to defray participant costs. After discovering microschooling in 2023 while running her learning pod, McClymont saw a post on social media by Kipe mentioning Launch Your Kind. She connected with Alleyne and joined the next accelerator cohort in 2024, growing her program, Tree Stars Learning, from three students to 13. She serves both neurodiverse and neurotypical students in her current microschool location in West Sunrise, Florida, and is in the process of opening a second location in Coral Springs. She credits the accelerator program as a primary reason for her early success and continued growth. 'To be a teacher is one thing; to be an entrepreneur and run a successful microschool is another. There were a lot of things that I didn't know, like certain legalities, marketing, and just the logistics of how to run the company,' said McClymont, adding that the connection to a small community of founders within the Launch Your Kind cohort was also invaluable. One piece of entrepreneurial input was particularly helpful. 'I was grossly undercharging myself and Iman had to have a conversation with me,' recalled McClymont. 'She told me, 'you are undercharging for what you have to offer and you need to raise your prices. Yes, you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart but you're running a business now.'' For McClymont, that type of candid feedback was exactly what she needed to take her business to the next level to serve even more students throughout South Florida. Adopting a solid business mindset was how McClymont would be able to do the most good for the most students. 'I think that's something that a lot of educators probably struggle with,' she added. McClymont has observed significant academic and social-emotional gains in her students, and plans to continue to open new microschools as parent demand grows. She is also considering the possibility of creating a franchise model to help other educators launch their own Tree Stars Learning locations without having to start from scratch. She said she thinks the microschooling movement is just beginning: 'I feel like we are the Uber of taxis: I believe that microschools are going to take over. Especially in South Florida, parents are looking for other options because they see how the public school is not serving their child. It's getting to a point where they have to close down some public schools here. Parents are seeking other options, and I just want to be a positive light.'
