The Public Microschool Playbook: A New Actionable Guide for System Leaders

Across the country, school and system leaders are grappling with how to make learning more personalized, more flexible, and more relevant to students’ lives and futures. Public microschools are emerging as a powerful way forward by offering small, purpose-built learning environments designed to meet local needs while staying grounded in access, opportunity, and learner-centered innovation.

To support the growing microschool movement, Getting Smart Collective, Learner-Centered Collaborative, and Transcend came together to co-create the Public Microschool Playbook. Drawing on decades of experience and the collective expertise of our organizations, this comprehensive, actionable guide will help leaders across the ecosystem design, launch, and sustain microschools within public systems.

While microschools exist across public and private spaces, this Playbook focuses squarely on public microschools that are tuition-free, publicly funded learning environments intentionally designed to meet specific learner needs. We built it for system leaders in districts, public charter networks, regional agencies, or tribal education systems, with additional practical insight for:

• Educators and school-based leaders seeking to bring microschool-inspired practices into existing environments
• Community partners and nonprofit organizations looking to co-create solutions and unlock local assets
• Philanthropic and innovation-focused organizations exploring high-leverage investments
• State policymakers and influencers working to remove regulatory barriers and enable new models

Grounded in a commitment to community-driven design, the Playbook is not just about creating new schools but new possibilities within public education. While the Playbook is designed to guide the work of individual leaders and teams, its implications extend well beyond any single school. In addition to meeting the needs of individual learners, public microschools offer a wide range of benefits to public school systems as a whole. They help deepen community connection and relevance, improve student experiences and outcomes, and can spark broader system innovation from within. Microschools can enhance system agility, promote long-term sustainability, expand student access, and offer families meaningful choices. They also support teacher satisfaction and leadership, aligning learning with evolving community and workforce needs.

The Playbook emphasizes these interconnected benefits to show that public microschools can be both a responsive solution and a strategic investment in the future of public education.

Access the Public Microschool Playbook Resources

The Public Microschool Playbook is a roadmap grounded in real-world conditions and organized into three phases: Planning, Designing, and Implementing.

While every microschool will look different, the most successful models share one thing in common: intentional design rooted in a clear sense of purpose. System leaders are uniquely positioned to reimagine what school can be, not by starting from scratch, but by thoughtfully assembling the right components to meet the needs of a specific learner population. 

The Playbook breaks this process down into core design elements, each with a clear explanation of why it matters, guiding questions to shape your thinking, concrete action steps to move your work forward, and real-world examples from the field. It also highlights how design decisions influence opportunity and access, helping you create a microschool that serves students well and contributes to system-level transformation. The goal is to help leaders move from idea to implementation with purpose, clarity, and confidence.

Specifically, leaders will find step-by-step guidance on:

• Navigating policy conditions with waivers and flexibility
• Making the case for microschools within your strategic and financial plan
• Designing structures like advisory, project-based schedules, and multi-age cohorts
• Solidifying governance, facilities, and operational support
• Launching with purpose, building culture, and supporting educator learning
• Leveraging microschools as R&D sites for broader system transformation

Whether you’re just beginning to explore microschools or actively planning your first launch, these tools support real decision-making, collaborative planning, and on-the-ground designing and iterating. It’s a flexible, field-tested guide designed to help you create what your community needs most, grounded in your goals, constraints, and aspirations. 

We’ve made the Playbook accessible in multiple formats so you can use it how you need to, when you need to:

• View the fully interactive digital version on any device
• Download the full 75+ page PDF to read, print, or share
• Explore and copy the digital workbooks to customize with your design team
• Sign up here to stay in touch with future resources and campaign updates

The Playbook supports you in making intentional, context-driven design choices that reflect your vision and values, while offering tools and examples to learn from others doing this work across the country. When approached with clarity and care, microschools don’t just improve learning for a few; they can inspire new ways of serving all students.

Do you have ideas for additional resources to support your efforts to create public microschools? Email [email protected]