Close up of a father helping his son with schoolwork
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As vaccinations ramp up and coronavirus cases decline, millions of children are finally heading back into the classroom. There are some families, though, that took a hard look at traditional schooling during the pandemic and concluded that they want something different. Something smaller. Something more personalized.
Whether termed “pandemic pods” or “microschools” or a host of other names that have popped up, these small educational institutions have seen a tremendous increase in interest in the past few months. Will they be a flash in the pan or something more sustainable? Are microschools going to become a substantial part of the education landscape?
I reached out to Joe Connor, co-founder and COO of SchoolHouse, an organization that helps families start microschools. He has a great perspective on the microschooling landscape and graciously replied to the questions I sent him. Our lightly edited conversation is below.
Michael McShane: What is SchoolHouse?
Joe Connor: SchoolHouse is a learning pods company. We enable parents to partner up with families in their community to form a learning pod and match them with an outstanding educator in their area. Right now, we have several hundred students enrolled in 8 states across the country.
McShane: Is there a difference between a learning pod and microschool?
Connor: No, we use the terms interchangeably.
McShane: How are pods organized?
Connor: Parents typically form pods with people that they know and have a deep social connection with, such as neighbors, friends, or colleagues. If parents don’t know anyone, we help match them with nearby parents to form a pod.
McShane: Where do you host these learning pods?
Connor: This is something I get really excited about! Learning can happen anywhere there is enough space for the students and the teachers. We have pods that take place at home in backyards, around kitchen tables, and in playrooms. We also have pods that operate in office space and storefront retail spaces.
McShane: What is attractive about microschooling for families?
Connor: I think the best part about microschools is that the small class size allows each student to receive individualized attention from the teacher. When I was a teacher, I often had class sizes of thirty-plus students. This meant that I could spend on average thirty minutes per month with each student. Our teachers spend hours each week working one on one with each student and really end up knowing them in a way that was impossible for me as a teacher to do.
McShane: What attracts teachers to SchoolHouse?
Connor: Our teachers like it for several reasons and I’ll highlight two of them. First, we grant our teachers lots of autonomy. We recruit outstanding teachers and allow them to choose the curriculum, schedule, and learning methods that they think are best for their pod. This flexible model has allowed us to hire many parents transitioning back from maternity and paternity leave. The second reason teachers like SchoolHouse is because we pay on average 10-20% more than their previous teaching position. We can afford to pay teachers more because our overhead is lower than a typical school since we don’t use physical facilities or have a large back-office staff.
McShane: How has the pandemic affected what you do?
Connor: The pandemic has brought a massive increase in demand for our model. Parents are looking for a safe and in person alternative to remote schooling and that’s exactly what we provide.
However, SchoolHouse isn’t just a COVID-specific solution. SchoolHouse is a much better academic experience for all of our students. The academic results we are seeing across our pods are really impressive. For example, we have Kindergarten pods here in New York state that are projected to end the year on a second-grade level and above. We have pods that started businesses, non-profits, and even published books. It’s incredibly exciting to see what our pods will do next!
McShane: How does public policy intersect with microschooling? Are there policies that can promote microschooling? Are there policies that can thwart it?
Connor: Policies that support public funding for parental choice are good for microschooling. Most states do not allow funding to follow the student if they leave their local public school. Programs such as education savings accounts remedy that mistake and allow parents to have their choice of which education option is best for their student. We currently do not utilize any public funding programs but are actively looking at several existing and proposed programs.
McShane: What do you think the future holds for microschooling and SchoolHouse?
Connor: Our parents have been incredibly satisfied with the education that their children have received this year. Many of our parents plan on never going back to their previous schools. We believe that over time more parents will set up their own learning pods as they discover SchoolHouse and learn about our outstanding academic results.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity
