Microschool, Hybrid school, Cooperative, Homeschool…Which do you choose?
As educational choices have gained more traction since 2020 (and even before), more and more people have become aware of options they didn’t even know existed for schooling their kids. Most people have heard of homeschooling, but not everyone knows how many approaches that word can include. Some people use online private classes or entire programs, others ‘unschool’ , others use traditional textbooks while others use only ‘real’ books. Some love co-ops and attend classes practically every day of the week while others are content to stay home most of the time.
Co-ops (cooperatives) have been around for decades. Often started by a homeschool parent or two, these groups often meet once a week, every other week, or once a month. Parents are usually required to stay with their kids and volunteer in some capacity. Fees are usually quite low and help cover the cost of facilities and supplies.
Hybrid schooling is newer on the scene and became somewhat of a misnomer during the Pandemic when it was used to describe an online/on-campus hybrid. The college I teach for used to offer hybrid courses that were a hybrid of online and on-campus attendance. The term has been used for this combination for quite a few years.
Hybrid schooling, as I and an increasing number of entrepreneurs use the term, is a hybrid of on-campus and homeschooling. Kids are home a few days and at school a few days. Home could, I suppose, include online learning, but that is not at all definitional to the model. On the contrary, the model is specifically geared toward making the most of the customization and freedom of home education and the community and structure of private schooling.
Unlike cooperatives, parents pay tuition and drop their kids off …just like school - just not every day (which makes tuition considerably less than private schools’ tuition). These programs are usually made up of multiple classes with a whole staff of teachers aides and administration (average size around 200 according to Kennesaw State University research).
Microschools are small as the name implies. Usually just one classroom of 12-15 kids and one teacher. These usually meet 4 or 5 days a week and come much closer to full-time school. Parents again pay tuition, but get in return a very personalized experience.
All of these models can further specialize by offering any number of pedagogical approaches. The combinations multiply rapidly when we think of Classical, Mason, Waldorf, Montessori, a form of unschool/child-led, or traditional.
One of the things most of us appreciate about free markets is that there are options. What works best for your kid, family, personality, budget? The more choices we have, the more likely we are to each find what fits us best.
