Scaling Microschools

Getting Smart, an education think tank led by Tom Vander Ark, recently released their first cohort of grantees from their Learning Innovation Fund.

Not only are parents limited in their choices about where they send their children to learn, without the benefit of education savings accounts, new organizations committed to personalized learning, are also limited in the amount of money available to scale their operations. Getting Smart’s Learning Innovation Fund will help those new personalized learning microschools to grow and become more effective.

Let’s look at the first cohort, focusing on what they offer that differs from traditional school space:

“ASU Prep Academy (Multiple locations in Arizona) – A public charter co-locating within the corporate facility of an industry partner. This model merges a flexible and innovation high school education with real-world industry experience, enabling students to learn in an authentic professional environment.”

“Da Vinci RISE High (Los Angeles, CA) – A non-profit designed around the needs of youth experiencing the foster care system, housing instability and/or the juvenile justice system. Through collocating with non-profit organizations and an innovative academic and wraparound services model, RISE provides equity to students most commonly left out of the larger educational narrative.”

“Ellemercito Academy (Los Angeles, CA) – A non-profit using first generation teachers to serve high needs K-12 learners. They offer real-world, highly personalized, and transformative education with an experiential, trauma-informed, and holistics learning approach.”

“Gem Prep Online (Multiple locations in Idaho) – Offers Learning Societies in rural communities providing flexible, high-quality, public charter education options. These in-person, small-group learning hubs are designed to each serve 30-40 students in grades K-12 with online learning activities including academic support, group projects, and social time with friends.”

“Issaquah School District (Issaquah, WA) – Opening multiple microschools within their public high schools to provide hybrid learning opportunities for students, especially those showing signs of school disengagement and early at-risk indicators of failing. With hands-on and real world experience, students will learn through 6-8 week interdisciplinary Design Labs.”

“Learner-Centered Collaborative (Vista, CA) – Partnering with three Southern California school districts, with each hosting either an elementary, middle or high school microschool. Shifting away from traditional grade levels and departments to create more learner-centered, flexible, and inclusive learning environments, they will focus on promoting learner agency, social and emotional wellness, and personalized learning experiences.”

“The PPHS Lab High School (Indianapolis and South Bend, IN) – Uses state funding and operates in partnership with industry and community members. Their growth plans include scaling to serve 40 students in 2024-2025, with the intention of replicating upon demonstrating model efficacy and viability.”

“Rooted School Foundation (New Orleans, LA) – Using state funds for their microschools and following their Rooted School charter school model, with students on a radically accelerated track to increase their upward mobility upon graduation. The microschools will be focused on industry pathways especially global IT and cybersecurity for the first microschool.”

“Science Prep Academy (Phoenix, AZ) – A program of The Neurodiversity Education Research Center (NERC) that offers an ESA-funded microschool interdisciplinary STEM education for neurodivergent youth from grades 6 to 13. This inclusive model teams with Banner Medical Center for an ESA-funded grade 13 internship experience combined with employability and independent-living skills training to help young neurodivergent students transition into productive adult life.”

“The University of Cincinnati Early IT Microschool (Columbus, OH) – A microschool powered by the PAST Foundation and will serve 100 economically disadvantaged, traditionally underserved and first-generation college-going students. Serving grades 9-12, it will prepare them for STEM employment, with the opportunity to explore their interests in information technology and related careers.”

It will be interesting to keep track of these schools to see how successful they are and, if so, how fast they can scale.

In the meantime, these types of learning organizations should be available to all families, especially those families that must send their kids to low-performing schools.

Instead of focusing on applying education savings accounts to already established private schools, maybe a state should begin using ESAs to incentivize microschools to form and families in sucky schools to use their money to send their kids some place else. If the microschool doesn’t perform to the parents’ expectations, they lose money and close. Then families look for other successful microschools to enroll their kids.

It beats sending kids to broken schools year after year.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow. SVB