社区黑料

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 社区黑料 Newsletter

Students attending microschools are progressing at the same rate as their peers nationally and sometimes a whole lot faster than expected, even though parents often choose such programs because their kids have disabilities or other significant challenges, new data shows.

From fall 2025 to spring 2026, about 400 students from 27 schools made gains in math and reading on the widely used i-Ready tests, with more than half exceeding expected growth based on national norms in reading and 47% doing so in math.

Some microschools, especially larger ones, were 鈥渒nocking it out of the park,鈥� with 鈥渆very student achieving over and above what was expected.鈥� said Daniel Hamlin, dean of education at the University of Texas at Austin, who conducted on behalf of the National Microschooling Center, an advocacy organization.

Nearly half of the students had special learning needs, 28% had mental health needs and 14% had a chronic medical condition. 

鈥淵ou have a very high percentage of kids who would be classified in a public school as having a disability or some kind of other significant life circumstance, like a severe medical condition,鈥� he said. 

I-Ready creates a projected score for each individual student, based on the data from public and private school students nationwide. In the microschool sample, results were weaker among students in poverty, those in the elementary grades and Black students in math. 

The study has multiple limitations. It鈥檚 small and the students who took the tests might not be representative of the microschool population in general, estimated at 1 million to 2 million students nationally. Families who choose microschools may also be different in several ways from those in public schools, and the schools weren鈥檛 randomly selected. Still, the research is significant because Hamlin was able to collect data from the same kids in the same microschools over the course of the school year. The . tried something similar last year and ran into multiple obstacles.

鈥淭his is a valuable and timely study in a space where we still have far too little empirical evidence,鈥� said Jonathan Schweig, the senior scientist who led Rand鈥檚 project. 

In that study, out of a sample of 271 microschools nationwide, he couldn鈥檛 find enough programs that had both fall and spring assessment data to reach any meaningful conclusions about how much progress students made in a year. The perception that there鈥檚 too much testing in the public schools is often one of the reasons families leave them for microschools.

Schweig added that it鈥檚 still difficult at this stage to 鈥渕ake broad claims about microschools given the sector鈥檚 diversity.鈥�

Hamlin, who is slated to present the data Thursday at an annual devoted to emerging education models, elaborated on why the sector is difficult to research. As parents piece together different learning experiences for their children, often with state-funded education savings accounts, students sometimes 鈥渇all into multiple categories.鈥� They may homeschool part of the week, take an online course and spend a few days at a microschool. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to know exactly how many students are in a microschool because there’s just so much overlap between all these different emerging school models,鈥� he said. 

One-on-one learning

The i-Ready results are part of a larger report that includes survey responses from both parents and students. Small classes, individualized attention and a safe school environment were the top three reasons parents gave for choosing a microschool. 

鈥淔inding a school with well-trained teachers who are able to recognize strengths and challenges without passing judgement is really hard,鈥� said Lara Landrum, whose daughter, a sophomore, is in her third year at the , or CALE, in Columbia, Missouri. While it鈥檚 possible for students to feel like they belong in a large school, she said, 鈥渢he intimacy of a microschool allows for this naturally.鈥�

Like many of these non-traditional programs, CALE opened during the pandemic, operating out of a former medical office. Now housed in a church, the school has expanded from the elementary grades to offer a full junior K through 12th grade program. 

Roughly 80% of CALE鈥檚 135 students previously attended public schools. Some, said CEO Jill Brown, struggled with reading disabilities and needed 鈥渟tructured literacy support,鈥� others had gaps across multiple subject areas and some kids were working so far above grade level they needed more advanced assignments. 

鈥淲e also have students who experience anxiety in larger school environments and benefit from the smaller, more supportive setting at CALE,鈥� Brown said.

In the survey, those who moved their child out of a public school, about 20% of the sample, said these students are making more progress and have a tighter circle of friends in their current microschool. The school also feels safer and is better at communication, they said. The majority of students reported having one-on-one time with a teacher nearly every day, small group learning and making close friends. 

Given the in these small private schools, Hamlin recommends several areas for additional research. Future studies should have a larger sample聽and compare microschool students to those who are demographically similar in district, charter and other private schools.

Because there are different types of microschools, like nature-based programs, models that combine virtual and in-person learning, and those that serve specific populations, he suggested analyzing results to better understand which are more likely to boost student performance. 

Considering many microschool students with disabilities are using ESA funds, researchers could do a 鈥渃ost-benefit analysis鈥� comparing public schools to microschools. More rigorous studies will also follow microschool students over a longer period of time, Hamlin said.

He acknowledged that working with the National Microschooling Center, a group that鈥檚 advancing the movement, to recruit schools for research, 鈥渄oes end up creating some limitations because you get a self-selected sample.鈥�

鈥淏ut from my vantage point, we have to start somewhere,鈥� he said.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 社区黑料鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.