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Executive Summary
What are the defining trends and characteristics of today’s microschooling movement?
This report, the most comprehensive analysis of U.S. microschools published to date, examines this highly diversified, growing sector, considering important educational and operational aspects as reported by 800 microschools, both currently-operating and prelaunch, located in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Microschools are innovative small learning environments which have generally been established outside of traditional public education systems. The families they serve value them for different reasons, especially because their small size and flexibility allow them to offer unique solutions not currently offered in most communities, and to be created and operated around the specific needs of the individual children they serve, and families’ active involvement and input are welcomed.
The unique models, with varying missions and focuses, have different ways of measuring impact aligned with these priorities that are described in this analysis, along with relevant details about the founders, leaders and families driving today’s microschooling movement.
Among the report's findings:
- 74 percent of microschools have annual tuition and fees at or below $10,000, with 65 percent offering sliding scale tuition and discounts;
- Among microschools that track academic growth data of students over time, 81 percent reported between 1 and 2 years of academic gains during one school year;
- Children receive letter grades in just 29 percent of microschools, while observation-based reporting, portfolios, and tracking mastery are the most prevalent methods of tracking their impact;
- The most important student outcomes for currently-operating microschools are growth in nonacademic learning, children’s happiness in their microschool, skills perceived as needed for future, and academic growth.