Giving Compass' Take:

• Jude Schwalbach argues that micro-schooling uses forward-thinking, innovative methods to feed children’s voracious appetite for new experiences and ideas.

• How can donors help fund micro-schools? Is there enough data on how they work to incentivize funding?

• Learn more about innovative micro-schools. 

There’s a world of difference between telling kids what they are supposed to know and teaching them how to learn.

As parents look for more and better education options, the up-and-coming phenomenon of micro-schooling aims to bridge the gap between facts and experience with project-based learning.

Although the micro-school movement launched in the U.S. and United Kingdom in just the past decade, aspects of it are much older. Home-schooling families may recognize traits in common with the co-ops they’ve been forming since the 1990s.

Each school is independent, so no two are just alike in emphasis, class structure, or curriculum. One might be K-12, another might only serve students through 5th grade, or offer only junior high and high school classes. The common trait, a population of fewer than 150 students, is what gives them their name.

Read the full article about micro-schools by Jude Schwalbach at The Heritage Foundation.