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.

Read the full article about public microschools at Getting Smart.