If you or your child is dreading the current/upcoming middleschool experience and wish you could design your own school to best support your passions and strengths, that day is now here. Zealous Schools has been so inspired by the idea of microschools that we designed “Powered by Zealous”, which will provide everything you need to get your own school up and running in just six months.

The Master Plan

“The idea of the first school in Eagle, CO was to establish a flagship campus that we could use to better share our idea with the world”, said Executive Director, Geoff Grimmer. “Now that we have launched our second school, we believe we’ve worked out most of the wrinkles in the design and are now studying the rollout and other process details.” We have developed a training model that will allow new microschools to stand on their own two feet within 24 months.” Zealous received a generous grant to productize this concept and believes it can be a powerful tool in both public and private school communities.

“One of our strategic targets is to implement this model with public school administrators who see value in hosting a micro middleschool in their portfolio of student choices”, Grimmer said. In that scenario, existing school districts might offer a microschool magnet such as “Technology”, “Arts”, or “Languages” as a way to reinspire kids and restore school as a “pull model”. 24 students would combine with four academic coaches to prioritize student passions and strengths. Curriculum would allow for project-based, place-based and passion-based projects (all three) to unfold throughout the year. This is all possible within the Colorado Department of Education’s “Innovation Zone” distinction which allows for multiple schools within a single district to seek CDE exemptions.

How do micros compare to Charter schools?

From a governance perspective, the microschool reports directly to the existing school board and staff. No new boards. This allows maximum collaboration between existing district middle schools and their newly minted micro assets. The idea of choice with Micros is common with Charters and it is likely that students and families applying to micros would want one “magnet” but not get accepted the first round. The size of these schools (24) makes them immediately competitive, especially if the magnet is compelling and relevant to the local community. One way to prioritize the 24 spots is by creating a rubric that ranks student passions, strengths and supports.

The private side is a little less read tape on the launch but does not get any public funding. It allows for complete freedom on what educators you hire, what curriculum you implement, and how you run your physical plant. “The private side has been very easy to work with”, said Grimmer. “The flexibility of lesson designs is very human and allows us to adapt to the passions of the group, bringing highly-inspiring topics every day.” There are no standardized test requirements for private schools but Zealous runs the NWEA three times per year to verify growth and determine baseline reading and math skills.

In our four years of operating microschools, we have connected with dozens of kids who were really deflated by traditional learning spaces. It is frustrating for these kids because they are being shilacked with failure messages from teachers, family and peers. It is hard to want to go to a place every morning were you aren’t feeling successful. Our first week or two is spent rekindling the love of learning and establishing trust and norms for the group. Being in a 6:1 learning space allows for very tactical design of lessons, aiming to harness passion and strengths of the specific group.

At the end of the day, we do all this work because of the endless joy it gives us, the families, and kids to experience self-actualization. This is a huge gift that we give a small group of kids and the next step for us is to expand our impact to a regional level while closely monitoring critical success factors at our lab schools. We have seen the tremendous impact “wrap around” non-profits provide kids after school and on the weekends. This would shift the non-profit impact directly into the school day with public school staff.

Besides student benefits, we see this microschool platform as a way to challenge outdated pedagogy. Teachers can learn a ton by either becoming an academic coach or just dropping in to observe a lesson. New tech tools, digital partners, next generation hardware and authentic assessments will keep educators inspired. Week-long training camps allow for explicit staff development on the core structures and permission to share your best ideas in pursuit of your highest calling in the classroom.

Download the Overview Pdf to learn more