LEADPrep is a progressive “micro-school.” What exactly is a “micro-school” and what does that mean for our students?
Arianna Prothero, a staff writer for Education Week has thought about that question a lot. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, but there seems to be a consensus forming around a few core traits:
- Micro-schools have no more than 150 students, but are often smaller—from around 10 to a few dozen students;
- Multiple ages learn together in a single classroom;
- Teachers act more as guides than lecturers;
- There’s a heavy emphasis on digital and project-based learning; and
- Education is highly personalized.
But really, there is no common definition that covers all these schools, which vary not only by size and cost but also in their education philosophies and operating models.
Matt Candler, founder of 4.0 Schools, writes, “What makes a modern micro-school different from a 19th century, one-room schoolhouse is that old school schools only had a few ways to teach — certainly no software, no tutors, and probably less structure around student to student learning.
In a modern micro-school, there are ways to get good data from each of these venues. And the great micro-school of the future will lean on well-designed software to help adults evaluate where each kid is learning.”
Why are micro-schools popping up all over the US and Europe?
Micro-schools are attractive to families who are dissatisfied with the quality of public schooling and cannot afford or do not want to pay for a traditional private-school education.
Homeschooling has been an option for families to personalize instruction for their children’s needs. Homeschool families often create cooperatives to gain flexibility for the parents and socialization for the children.
Often much less expensive and inflexible than private schools, yet more formal than homeschooling, micro-schools innovate to meet the needs of individual students within a community of learners. That’s LEADPrep…a micro-school for adolescents in the greater Seattle area!
