Town Hall Recap: Microschools Can Lead To Macro Change

Last week, we hosted our April Getting Smart Town Hall, Microschools Can Lead to Macro Change. This event touched on the many ways in which microschools have come to the fore through the last year and how oftentimes they enable schools to be more agile, more personalized and more effective. This event was inspired by a recent Getting Smart blog post.

We kicked off the event as we usually do, with a poem that resonated with us as we reflected upon the town hall topic.

won’t you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

We loved the way this poem highlighted themes like resilience, transformation, determination and even the idea of models!

Throughout the conversation we shared numerous examples of effective schools and models many of which are highlighted in this blog and this blog. We love these events because many of the leaders of the schools we highlight join the call and are able to elaborate further

Some of the great questions asked by attendees were as follows:

• How do Microschools address the lack of champions/great teachers?
• How many of the micro schools are run through public schools?
• What is the impact of the pandemic-era innovations on the microschool landscape?  Are you seeing increasing demand, new models?
• How can we move from Microschools to Marco impact? How is learning shared and disseminated faster?
• How do you utilize micro-school models in existing high schools.  Is Liberty one of the models?

Scott Van Beck, co-founder of The Education Game, shared how to start a micro school in five “easy” steps:

1. Find learners
2. Find a learning leader
3. Find resource to support the work
4. Develop individualized learning plans
5. Get started

You can see all of the links that were mentioned here.

Check out our next town hall on place-based education, or if you are interested in taking a deep dive on one of our favorite microschools, One Stone, check out our upcoming event about how to help scale their model.

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