Welcome to microschools, the increasingly popular modern-day version of one-room schoolhouses.
Experts at an NCSL Base Camp 2024 session agree that microschools might be defined as small, private learning institutions where students receive personalized instruction and are held accountable for their own progress. They are often described as outsourced homeschooling that, depending on the state, is free from common public school requirements such as standardized tests, mandatory curriculum, licensed teachers or accreditation.
“The key is that (microschools) resist definition,” says Lisa Snell, senior fellow for education at the Stand Together Trust. “They may be public charter schools, public schools, microschools, private schools, home schools. They are true pluralism in action.”
“The key is that (microschools) resist definition. They may be public charter schools, public schools, microschools, private schools, home schools. They are true pluralism in action.”
—Lisa Snell, Stand Together Trust
Snell says that microschools are mixed-aged operations with differing pedagogies that could choose from an array of models such as classical education, Catholic, Montessori, project-based, self-directed or hybrids of those different approaches in one school.
“So, it’s very hard to define them except for when you see it you know it,” she says. “I would say they’re dynamic, they’re pluralistic.”
Most are run by parents but often are associated with networks of other microschools that offer paid instructors operating in a variety of facilities including homes, community centers and libraries.
“It’s really about being able to experiment, adapt, to have autonomy as a teacher and as a school to change over time, be responsive to parents,” Snell says.
Expert panelists say that while they have existed in some form for years, microschools experienced a surge in 2020 with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as parents sought alternatives to mostly remote learning at public schools.
The pandemic ended, but the appeal of the mini learning environment has only grown. Microschools might be tiny individually, but cumulatively, they are anything but. The National Microschooling Center, an advocacy group, estimates there are 95,000 micro- and homeschooling operations in the U.S.
Researchers with EdChoice Inc., a nonprofit that supports school choice and tracks the field, estimate that between 1.1 million and 2.1 million children now attend microschools that typically serve an average of 15 students. That is 2% to 4% of the 55 million U.S. school-age children.
Statehouses across the country may consider what, if any, regulations or other requirements should be placed on microschools as their popularity grows.
Panel members urge caution, however, on regulation and stress the need to give the emerging education model time and flexibility to evolve to meet the unique needs of students and families.
“What microschools need most is freedom from regulatory burdens at local levels that make it impossible for them to start,” says Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice.
Colossal Academy of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is part of a network of microschools and covers grades 6-12 with mixed-age classrooms, founder and educator Shiren Rattigan says. It has a total of 30 students but just 22 on any given day; students adapt their schedules to accommodate learning styles, especially for neurodivergent students, and outside interests such as equestrian training and athletics. A microschool like hers allows educators to be creative and craft a curriculum specific to student needs, rather than follow a standardized approach.
“I want to have ownership of my classroom,” Rattigan says. “I can imagine a teacher … being able to have more autonomy and freedom into what curriculum to choose, what feedback to give, and what types of testing to use with a budget to allow” for student-specific spending instead of a more one-size-fits-all method.
Along with that freedom, Rattigan says she must also hold students to certain state standards and assessments required by the Florida Department of Education. She also is sure to follow the requirements spelled out in students’ individualized education plans and other accommodations for disabled students or those who need special education services.
Working with the state also has its benefits, she says. All her students receive assistance from Florida’s education savings account, or ESA, program. This year, the average ESA award is $10,000.
Colossal Academy’s annual tuition is $15,300. Broward County, where the school is located, annually spends $19,300 per pupil for public school students, Rattigan says.
Enlow says that trends for ESA funding indicate that all income levels are benefiting. In a survey of 400 microschools in states with ESAs, Enlow reports that 48% of the families came from households with average income for their area; 40% came from below-average-income households; and only 12% came from households with above-average income.
Independent research on the academic outcomes of the schools is just starting to emerge, Snell says. But she cautions against using typical public school measurements of success.
“I would go back to other measurements like demand and sustainability achievement,” she says. “I think there’s going to be a lot of resistance for that kind of thing (traditional test scores as measures of success) in this sector because it really is based on personalized experiences.”
Rattigan believes microschools have the potential to also help address the divisiveness that is all too common in the country.
“I really feel like people are deeply craving connection and community,” she says. “Regardless of our affiliations and the cultural wars that everybody’s hearing about, we’ll find that we have so much more in common than we do in difference.”
Brian Weber is a Denver-based freelance writer.