In the Article, the Rise of Micro-Schools: Combinations of Private, Blended, and At-Home

Introduction

In the article, The Rise of Micro-schools: Combinations of Private, Blended, and At-home Schooling Meet Needs of Individual Students, Horn (2015) explored the recent increase in alternative schooling methods and its hearkening to historical schooling. Drawing from parents who want something different than the typical public school experience for their children, and for whom the costs in time and/or money do not fit traditional private or home-school options, the newer affiliation of micro-schools seems the answer.

Summary

Micro-schools is a name casually assigned to schools that otherwise seem to have no name. These schools are private, sometimes chartered, sometimes receiving tax support, sometimes receiving business support, and largely developed with a specific purposes in mind. Dared to teach quantum physics in a simple way, QuantumCamp in Berkeley does just that, for students as young as twelve for a series of specifically science programs that are attended largely by home-schoolers, but also by students from other private schools. Acton Academy started as a hands-on one-room-schoolhouse option with only twelve students. While that number has increased to seventy-five students, they are in five classrooms, ensuring no more than fifteen students per class. Acton combines a compressed and structured online program with two big blocks of hands-on learning every day. Special efforts include art, physical education, and a session of teaching with the Socratic method to encourage to “talk, listen, and challenge ideas” (Hunt, 2015, 77).

AltSchool started with millions in venture capital to fund a school with no more than eight students per teacher. Grouped by ability as much as grade, these students are expected to learn integrated business strategies “to prepare students for 2030” (Hunt, 2015, p. 78). This network of micro-schools is intended to expand across the nation. With a cohesive software program to align student interests to curriculum desires, AltSchools are a network driven interface of proprietary software. Students at AltSchool and Kahn Academy -- a micro-school opened by Sal Khan, the software engineer whose programs are part and parcel of AltSchool -- select their own subjects from within a list, and learn about all aspects of the subject. Interestingly, the Kahn Academy is considered a lab school, where the students are constantly undertaking learning experiences using the experimental method. It makes one wonder if the students learning methods themselves are part of the experiment. Micro-schools are focused on teaching what the students want to learn in the way those students learn. This key factor allows those who can afford it to have a focus on their children more than on the community. This sentiment is detailed as “a fidelity to personalization and success for all in small communities” (Hunt, 2015, p. 78). It is important to note the emphasis on small communities, for it is within the intimacy of the small group that the passage of understanding is best lit.

The micro-schools provide an alternative to the more highly structured and traditional private school option. Public school is richly criticized for a one-size-fits-all approach. The intimation is that public schools are too lax, and private schools are too rigid, so micro-schools could be just right for a parent that wants and individual education for the child without home-schooling. Even with a nod toward the numbers required and the budgetary constraints, Hunt (2015) purports micro-schools as an option for those who are willing to pay $20,000 or more each year for a full-day five-day-a-week school program. Prices rise with grade levels, finding middle-schoolers paying nearly half again as much as elementary students. Even QuantumCamp, an almost extra-curricular program, charges thousands of dollars for a unit study. For additional funding, extra-curricular subjects will encompass the entire school; so one eight-person school may focus on music, while another focuses on art, etc. The proliferation of micro-schools is represented much like pointillism, dots here and there until a bigger picture shows the whole of them. The long term impact of the micro-school is “still anything but certain” (Hunt, 2015, p. 78).

Critical Analysis

This article lays out its analysis well. The opportunities in this expanding program are presented as highlights of the possibilities. Hunt, it should be noted, is the current executive director of the education division of the Clayton Christenson Institute of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Micro-schools movement seems to be based also in the Bay Area. The Institute itself is focused on “disruptive innovation” a term defined as “The theory of disruptive innovation describes a process by which a product or service transforms an existing market by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility, and affordability” (Christenson Institute, 2015, n.p.). One significant aspect of their work at the Institute is an ongoing implementation and study of the effect of blended (online plus brick and mortar) options for grades K-12. “Its research aims to transform monolithic, factory-model systems into student-centered designs that educate every student successfully and enable each to realize his or her fullest potential” (Christenson Institute, 2015, n.p.).

Given Hunt’s alignment with the disruptive innovation programs at the Christensen Institute, the positive presentation of micro-schools is understandable. Christensen (2015) states that the predictability of disruption is key for both business and education. The entirety of the Christensen Institute is based on the viability of coping with disruption. The whole focus of the education element is student led. Christensen (2015) notes that he sees higher education “is being disrupted in a powerful way” (p. 152). The entire focus of his Institute is on predicting and overcoming these disruptions. Seeing disruptions in higher education would lead to a natural engagement in earlier education so as to be affecting and accepting of change and disruption rather than overwhelmed by it.

Yet nowhere in all the discussion and excitement of the Micro-school concept is there mention of the disruptive student. Students with unique learning challenges that routinely cause disruption to the learning methods of the public school classroom, and the traditional private school classroom as well, are not mentioned. This is particularly interesting because most educators have been versed on the student-driven method (which echoes in Micro-schooling) as developed by Maria Montessori. Much of Montessori’s method, however, was devised to aid the students with special needs who were stymied by traditional learning methods (MacKenzie & Zascavage, 2012).

While there are a number of methods for aiding children with special needs, including parent advocacy, teacher advocacy, school system aid, and public welfare organizations, the most important factor in placing any student is recognizing the needs of the student are not being met with current structure (Simonsen, Jeffrey-Pearsall, Sugai, & McCurdy, 2011). Alternatives to public school provide opportunities for students who have learning challenges whether those challenges are physical, emotional, mental, psychological, or anything else. For one teacher in a class of twenty-five or thirty students with a few disruptive, that can be challenge enough to through off the learning objectives for any period of time. In a class of eight students, the ability to meet the needs of the individual student are logically better harnessed, particularly in light of the heavy financial investment made in the schools. Hunt, however, addresses none of these issues.

In other countries, where homeschooling is banned or severely limited, parents join together to school their children, forming what could be termed a Micro-school (Greg, 2014). In Ohio, the statement that a school is founded on any truly held religious belief and led by someone with a bachelor’s degree may submit attendance reports to the Department of Education to be a “non-chartered, non-tax supported school” (OAC-3301-35-08). Under this law, groups of parents have banded together with someone holding a baccalaureate to allow them to school their children within their own methods and expectations. While Ohio’s “08” schools cost the taxpayers nothing, they also are not chartered, thus receiving no state or business funds. The do, however, allow for minimal state intrusion into the education of the students, much like Micro-schools.

Hunt (2015) addresses private funding for Micro-schools, both corporate and family funding obligations. Hunt does not address how these schools are regulated or students are reviewed to ensure compliance with state standards. In all other forms of schools, some form of student review or evaluation is required.

Conclusion

This article provided a new view at a new issue. Perhaps, however, the construct is not really new at all, but rather phrased in a new way as an attention-gathering method. Micro-schools, as identified in the article reflect no standards or certifications. Most appear to be a gathering of students in a well-funded environment to learn whatever is desired by the students and their parents during a specified period of time. The nicety of a cohesive group allows for greater individual attention, always a preferred situation for children.

Hunt opens the window to the presentation of micro-schooling, but keeps the drapes drawn on a plethora of troubling issues: standards, disabilities, credentials, etc. Much like Montessori’s work in the early 1900s, the answer of equitable education for all children seems still to be the goal.

References

Christensen, C. (2015). Disruptive innovation is a strategy, not just the technology. Business Today, 23(26), 150-158.

Christensen Institute. (2015). The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.

Greg, H. (2014). Disillusioned families pool resources for home teaching. Times, The (United Kingdom), 17.

Horn, M. B. (2015). The rise of micro-schools: combinations of private, blended, and at-home schooling meet needs of individual students. Education Next, (3), 77.

McKenzie, G. & Zascavage, V. (2012). Montessori Instruction: A Model for Inclusion in Early Childhood Classrooms and Beyond. Montessori Life, 24(1), 32-38.

OAC-3301-35-08. (2015) Ohio Administrative Code

Simonsen, B., Jeffrey-Pearsall, J., Sugai, G, & McCurdy, B. (2011). Alternative setting-wide positive behavior support. Behavioral Disorders. 36(4), 213-224.