Microschools introduce career skills to early grades through nonprofit partnership

“A partnership between two Indiana nonprofits is exploring introducing CTE skills in earlier grades, hoping to build problem-solving, technical and collaboration skills through hands-on, STEM-based learning. The statewide partnership between Project Lead the Way, a national provider of career-focused STEM curriculum, and the Indiana Microschool Collaborative, a network of microschools, is delivering learning units across core content areas for elementary and middle school students. The learning units aim to build transferable skills like critical thinking, collaboration and communication. Microschools serve a smaller number of students with personalized curriculum that incorporates project-based learning and community-based experiences. “Career-connected learning shouldn’t be an add-on. It should be embedded into the curriculum,” said George Philhower, superintendent of Eastern Hancock Schools in Charlottesville, Indiana. Philhower is also founder and CEO of the Indiana Microschool Collaborative, which partners with districts and communities to build, launch and support microschools. David Dimmett, president and CEO of Project Lead the Way, said that particularly in smaller settings, students can work through content at their own pace, with math, science and other career-connected learning delivered “in a more authentic, project-based way. Students are building skills that will help them become more productive.” Project Lead the Way has never partnered with a microschool network, but Dimmett sees that as the sort of innovative approach needed to deliver career-focused content. “Schools can’t do it alone. We can’t do it alone,” he said. “We’re working together to understand students’ needs. There’s a lot of appetite for this kind of flexibility. There are a lot of families looking for an alternative to traditional elementary, middle and high schools.” Through microschools, whether they’re a “school within a school” or on a satellite campus, students and families will obtain the individualization to meet learning needs, including mixed grade levels as students master content at different rates, Dimmett said. “We’ve seen this interest grow pretty rapidly here in Indiana, and I also know there are other states where communities are looking at a microschool model,” he said. The Indiana collaborative “has attracted home-schooled students back to their microschool setting.” Indiana Microschool Collaborative, launched this school year, has a vision to provide each student a school that feels like it was designed for them, based on four promises, according to Philhower. Those goals are to provide: Joy by ensuring students enjoy their school experience. Connection by ensuring they feel “known.” Growth by ensuring they are learning new and memorable lessons every day. Success by ensuring what they learn is relevant and prepares them for the future. “We’re trying to rethink what the school experience looks like, and change is what change has always been: it’s a little difficult,” he said. “We haven’t experienced too many challenges with that so far. We would anticipate changes in teacher training.” The collaborative has received requests and interest from other schools that would like to partner, typically starting as a school-within-a-school and then potentially spreading out from that subsection of the population, Philhower said. “I’m a big believer that the whole system has to shift, eventually, until we have no kids who are not hitting the goals for them,” he said. “The part I’m most excited about is the idea that this is an opportunity to spread the work that’s happening in a really personalized environment to other places. And we could help them figure out what that could look like, in a very tangible way.” The shift in the parent perspective on education in recent years will help that shift along, Philhower said. “To the greatest extent we’ve seen, lots of parents are taking a look at their own kids’ education and demanding something a little bit different,” he said. “That’s seen in the rising populations of homeschool and online flexible education options.”

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