Microschools can be, and frequently are, unique learning environments where learning and growth take place in any number of different ways. This means that the positive outcomes for each of the children they serve can also vary meaningfully.
The National Microschooling Center asked prelaunch founders about the student outcomes they prioritize most in the microschools they are building. Their responses are indicative of the pluralism found widely across the sector, as you can see from the graphic above.
Academic growth ranked highest, prioritized by more than 8 out of 10 founders (respondents were able to select more than one choice). Children thriving and being happy in their new setting ranked second, followed by academic proficiency and/or mastery, growth in nonacademic learning, and skills perceived as needed for future employment and success. Faith- or values-infused outcomes were prioritized in one out of four microschool models surveyed.
As these prioritized outcomes vary broadly, so too do the ways microschools track and demonstrate their progress attaining them.
Most of today's microschool founders have backgrounds as experienced educators, and also rely on more active relationships with the families they serve, when it comes to their children's learning trajectories, than they were able to establish fully in larger, more traditional schooling settings. This combination of important factors enables microschools to select, and focus on, outcomes which matter most to the communities they serve, and to do so collaboratively.