Microschool is a charter and a district school -- and a homeschool hybrid

Nature's Gift students explore Nameless Creek on their rural Indiana microschool campus.

Parents were leaving his rural Indiana district to homeschool their children, writes George Philhower, superintendent of Eastern Hancock Community Schools. They wanted more flexibility and personalized learning. So he created an alternative: Nature’s Gift is a 64-student microschool funded as a charter and administered by the district. Some students attend part time and are homeschooled as well.

Now in its first year, the microschool is drawing out-of-district students, stabilizing Eastern Hancock's budget, and has a 30-student wait list.

"Students learn through hands-on activities and real-world projects designed by Project Lead The Way, building skills step by step until they’re ready to move on, rather than advancing simply because the calendar says it’s time," Philhower writes. "Educators work closely with families to set goals, track growth and create a tailored path for their child."

Indiana has strong school-choice laws. He hopes the new Indiana Microschool Collaborative will incubate more public charter microschools across the state to provide alternatives for students.

 Only about 5 percent of microschools are public, reports Hechinger's Rachel Fradette. As many as 2 million students nationwide attend microschools, which now average 22 students. 

Superintendents in states with school choice are calling the National Microschooling Center to ask about the public model, CEO Don Soifer told Fradette. “They’re losing some of their best teachers and families to microschools, and they want to get out in front of that.”

Nature’s Gift is located at a 12-acre youth camp surrounded by woods, writes Fradette. "Learning is personalized, with many of the middle and high schoolers managing parts of their daily schedule."

Most students are homeschooled half the time. 

Erin Wolski, the lead educator, taught for more than 16 years in traditional public schools. She worked with Philhower to design the school.

Another Nature’s Gift teacher, Christina Grandstaff, also taught in traditional public schools for years. She enjoys her new school's ability to be flexible, she said. “We’re outside more, or we can learn outside, or we have kids that move from that group up to this level.”

Jen Shipley homeschools her 9-year-old daughter two days a week and sends her to Nature's Gift for three days a week. “We feel like partners in her education, versus I’m just handing her over and I just have to deal,” Shipley said. 

Danielle Maroska had homeschooled her daughter, Kinzie for years to make time for her gymnastic practices, but Kinzie wanted a school community. She now attends Nature's Gift full days on Monday and half days the rest of the week with homeschooling in the afternoons. Maroska told Fradette she sees herself as a “co-captain” in her daughter’s education, with Wolski as the captain.

Indiana requires charter students to be tested, writes Fradette. Seventy percent scored below proficient in math, 30 percent below proficient in English Language Arts on state benchmark tests in November in the school's first year.

Nationwide, only one-third of microschool students take state tests, according to Soifer's center. There's little data on well students are learning.

Some researchers fear public microschools will be less innovative if they're judged by standardized test scores, Fradette writes. “If that high-stakes accountability piece is there, it is inevitable that schools will have to change their operations to lean more towards performing on those metrics,” said Lauren Covelli, who studies microschools for Rand.