Microschool founders and their teams appreciate the flexibility that microschooling provides them. 70% of microschools that we surveyed for our 2026 Sector Analysis that had been open at least one previous told us that families and/or students had substantially influenced their school policy or curriculum.
When a student requests to work on a project, the microschool leaders don’t have to go through a burdensome process in order to acquire the materials needed for the project that we see in traditional public school systems. This means if a student asks to build a rocket on Monday, that same student might very well be building a rocket in their microschool on Tuesday.
There are many ways that microschools work with their learners, offering them the opportunity to shape the culture, curriculum and more of their microschool. Allowing learners to truly own their own educational journey is an important aspect of microschooling.
We asked microschools that had been open in the previous year and indicated that families and/or students had influenced their microschool to please rank the level of influence their students have had on the following areas:
When asked about the daily schedule, 9% of microschools said that their students had full influence on the daily schedule, with 46% of microschools saying their students had limited influence and 9% saying their students had no influence.
In 45% of microschools students had limited influence on the microschool’s curriculum, with 22% of microschools saying students had substantial influence, and only 5% reporting that students had no influence on the curriculum.
When asked about the level of influence students have had on project themes, 53% of microschools reported that their students had substantial influence, 10% reported that their students had full influence and only 2% reported that their students had no influence on project themes.
The Center also asked microschools to consider the influence of students on where learning happens. Only 7% of microschools reported that students had full influence on where learning happens, with the rest of the responses being pretty evenly split between substantiation, moderate, limited and none.
Only 3% of microschools reported that their students had full influence on the budget for activities, 10% reported substantial influence, 38% reported that students had moderate influence in this area.
Over half, 52%, of microschools reported that their students had limited influence regarding hiring and staffing decisions. 23% reported that students had no influence in this area and 5% of microschools gave students full influence in hiring/staffing decisions.
When it comes to rules and expectations, 8% of microschools reported that students have full influence in this area, 40% report substantial influence from students, 33% report moderate influence and only 2% report that students have no influence over rules and expectations.
Microschool founders, their teams and the families that choose them place a strong value on the ways that microschool can allow the teachers and students to adapt, iterate and improve. By allowing students the opportunity to influence significant areas of the microschool, these leaders are really finding the best ways to serve the children in their learning environment.