Think big, go small: Inside what may be education’s bottom-up revolution
Organic and free-form learning pods thrived during the pandemic and seem to have stuck around. Can microschools change the face of U.S. education? Our writer set out to size up an emerging trend. Here, she talks about her work.
Smaller, more personal learning spaces. Teaching that’s less standardized, less test-based. A kid-directed experience – or one that prioritizes nature.
“Sometimes, it’s just parents looking for a different fit for their child,” says education writer Jackie Valley. She recently wrote about the rise of microschools, some of which are pandemic learning pods that evolved into what are essentially modern-day one-room schoolhouses. That meant looking locally, then nationally.
“There are a lot of different reasons I think people are gravitating to microschools,” Jackie says on the Monitor’s “Why We Wrote This” podcast, “and each microschool is different.”
Are they poised to transform the U.S. education system?
“It’s something that should be watched closely,” Jackie says. “Because what sometimes happens is ... larger school systems may pluck ideas from these ‘labs’ where they’re experimenting with different formats.”
“People thought these might just go away when schools resumed operating as normal again, and they didn’t,” Jackie says. “And I think that says something about the education landscape right now.”
Episode transcript
Jackie Valley: “[W]e chose ‘transformation’ as our value tag for this story because it has a potential to do just that in the education realm, but I think there are several other values at play here, too.... Obviously, these microschool leaders have a responsibility to educate the children who are coming to their school. Another one is innovation... [T]hey’re little testing grounds for a new way to teach kids....”
Clay Collins: That was Jackie Valley, an education writer at the Monitor.
Education reform can sound … governmental. But the fact is, some of the most interesting experiments in ed reform are bottom-up and organic, the work of frontline educators with adaptive attitudes and a genuine desire to make the learning experience better.
Whether those can cross into the realm of public policy is a question that’s bound up in issues like regulation and funding. Still, the spirit of innovation rises.
This is “Why We Wrote This.” I’m Clay Collins. Jackie was last on this show back in February talking about issues of fairness around teacher pay. She joins me today to talk about her recent story on “microschools,” some of which began as pandemic “pod” learning groups, and all of which are small – typically, they have fewer than 30 students – and all of which are modern-day one room schoolhouses, basically, that run on various sets of principles and with few formal guardrails.
Good to have you back, Jackie.
Jackie Valley: Yeah! It’s good to be here.
Collins: So first off, how did you learn about these schools?
Valley: So, it actually goes back a few years to when I was doing local reporting at my prior job in Las Vegas. It was during the pandemic, and the city of North Las Vegas actually started its own microschool in rec centers, during that period when schools were on remote learning.
So I thought it was interesting back then, but at that point I thought, “Oh, this is just a temporary solution.” And in fact, in North Las Vegas, that’s exactly what it was – they’re not doing their microschool anymore. But, what we saw happen was that other microschools that started, or these “learning pods” actually persisted, and there’s been a lot of growth since then.
And so, a report about it came out in the spring and I thought, “OK, I’ll do a short update story.” But the more I started reporting, the more interesting it kept getting. And so we wound up with a much longer story that I think is a fascinating look at this relatively new trend.
Collins: And ... you visited some of these schools, or, a couple. Can you describe what they’re like?
Valley: Yeah, so they really run the gamut. We visited two in Las Vegas, and then one in Denver. So one of the ones in Las Vegas is running out of a Jewish temple. They’re not affiliated with the temple, they’re just renting space. So it’s just a large room, and there’s posters with child-written rules because the kids make the rules in that school. It’s a very simple setup.
Across town, there’s another one that is also renting space from a church, and that one looks a little bit more like a traditional school. There’s a front entrance area, common room, and then some individual classrooms. And then the third, in Denver, is a home. So it’s on a residential leafy street. It’s a yellow house with a front porch and a little bell. And in the backyard there’s a giant play structure, and they’ve converted the garage into an art studio.
Collins: You mentioned kids having agency and [the ability to participate in] some decisionmaking, which is something that we’ve seen elsewhere. You know, I think you talked a little about multi-generational classrooms and nature-based learning, and these all sound like pieces of past bottom-up ed-reform movements. I wonder, as a long time education writer, how do you size up a new trend like that in terms of its significance? I mean, is this one potentially transformational?
Valley: Well, we chose “transformation” as our value tag for this story because it has a potential to do just that in the education realm, but I think there are several other values at play here, too. One that comes to mind is responsibility. Obviously, these microschool leaders have a responsibility to educate the children who are coming to their school. Another one is innovation. I mean, they’re little testing grounds for a new way to teach kids and perform school operations.
The reason I wanted to write the story is because it has persisted beyond the pandemic. People thought these might just go away when schools resumed operating as normal again, and they didn’t. And I think that says something about the education landscape right now.
There’s a desire for innovation, and change, and perhaps smaller class sizes, and more personal learning. So, it’s something that should be watched closely, I think, because what sometimes happens is the public schools or larger school systems may pluck ideas from these labs, so to speak, where they’re experimenting with different formats.
Collins: Hm. Reforms, you know, often target specific problems. And you mentioned classroom size, that’s one. And then you think of ideas like, the “flipped classroom” came along and that was targeting better engagement and a smarter use of learning time. Besides overcrowding, what are some of the education system problems that microschools are positioned to help solve?
Valley: Sometimes, it’s just parents looking for a different fit for their child. Maybe their child has struggled making friends, and they feel that a smaller environment would suit them better, or they think there’s too much standardized testing – that’s one common complaint. Or they want their kids to be on a learner-directed path rather than just a one-size-fits-all education that you might get elsewhere. And so, there’s a lot of different reasons I think people are gravitating to microschools, and each microschool itself is different.
So one family might choose a nature-based one ‘cause they’re really big on outdoor play and learning, whereas another one might choose a STEM-based type of school. Yeah, so right now, we’re seeing so much conversation about school choice, and I think microschools fit into that narrative because parents are choosing these different types of setting for their children.
Collins: I mean, parents really do have a role, and the more engaged they are, obviously, the better, usually. When you first hear the term microschools, it kind of has an air of exclusivity, especially when you hear that it’s a high ratio of educators to learners. And you call the schools “Montessori-inspired” in your piece. Is that perception of exclusivity in any way a barrier to the growth of microschools?
Valley: I think it could be. Microschool leaders acknowledge that it’s not accessible for everyone right now. They’re tuition-based, largely, and so it’s up to the families whether they can afford to send their children to these microschools. Now, some microschool leaders are intentionally setting their tuition at a rate that’s a notch lower than other traditional private schools in a bid to help out in that aspect.
It’s difficult to get an accurate figure for the exact number of microschool students because the laws vary by state, and so the way that these children are designated differs from place to place. But right now, the best guess is that it’s standing about 2%. And so one microschool leader expects that we could see the movement capturing up to about 10% of the school age population, but I think we’re years away from that at this point.
That’s one of the questions about this is like, if this keeps moving and expanding, will it be a setting where there’s a diverse group of students, both socioeconomically, racially, et cetera? Or, will it be, like you said, a little bit more exclusive for those who can pay for it?
Now, there is the question of public funding. West Virginia, for instance, is allowing voucher money to go toward microschools. And so then that raises the other issue of will we see more regulation? Because right now there [are] not a lot of guardrails on microschools. They are essentially operating as mini businesses.
Collins: Right. A source in your story says that this kind of project-based learning is about, quote, “building a civil society from scratch.” Now that struck me as a really big aim. Um, and as you say that, in order for this to really shape – reshape – the education system, it’s gotta get through this labyrinth that you described to get to maybe where it’s publicly funded.
Whatever its effect, ultimately, it seems like this shakes out as a really interesting testing ground for something new.
Valley: It is, I think, and the one that you’re referring to the director who said he was trying to “build a civil society from scratch” – that was Life Skills Academy in Henderson. And the reason he started it, he’s a parent himself, uh, doesn’t have an education background. He has more of a military background actually, and an engineer. And his reasoning was that when he was hiring people, fresh grads out of college from even some really good, well-known universities, he thought they lacked some basic life skills, and lacked some common sense or interpersonal relationship, those type of soft skills.
And so that was one of his reasons for starting this, was he wanted a school that focused on all of those skills and not just academics. And so in that particular setting, the kids are the ones who make the rules. They work together to define how the classroom should be run. You’ll even notice that when it’s time for a break, it’s a student signaling that it’s a 10-minute break.
It’s a looser atmosphere in some ways. I mean, the kids are not necessarily sitting at desks all day. They’re kind of back and forth. They can get snacks. Uh, one little girl was really cute, ’cause she said she loves it because she can take her shoes off. And so it’s just a different type of education atmosphere that he’s hoping will result in perhaps more well-rounded citizens one day.
Collins: And kid-approved, and they’re obviously the most important constituency in all of this.
Valley: [Laughs.] Yes.
Collins: Well, thanks so much, Jackie, for joining us to talk about your cover story in the Monitor Weekly, and for all the work you do for us.
Valley: Thank you. I enjoyed talking about it.
Collins: To our listeners, thanks for being here. You can find our show notes with links to the story discussed and to all of Jackie’s work at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Clay Collins, and produced by Mackenzie Farkus and Jingnan Peng. Our sound engineers were Tim Malone and Alyssa Britton. Original music is by Noel Flatt. Produced by The Christian Science Monitor, copyright 2023.
