Let's Get Small: Microschools, Pandemic Pods, and the Future of Education in America. Backgrounder. No. 3540

Autor/inn/en	Bedrick, Jason; Ladner, Matthew
Institution	Heritage Foundation, Center for Education Policy
Titel	Let's Get Small: Microschools, Pandemic Pods, and the Future of Education in America. Backgrounder. No. 3540
Quelle	(2020), (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Small Schools; COVID-19; Pandemics; Educational Change; Futures (of Society); School Choice; One Teacher Schools; Elementary Secondary Education; Nontraditional Education; Educational Benefits; School Size; Access to Education; Electronic Learning; Home Schooling; Educational Innovation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? School; Schools; Schule; Bildungsreform; Future; Society; Zukunft; Choice of school; Schulwahl; Einlehrerschule; Non-traditional education; Alternative Erziehung; Bildungsertrag; Education; Access; Bildung; Zugang; Bildungszugang; Homeschooling; Home instruction; ; Hausunterricht; Heimschule; Instructional innovation; Bildungsinnovation
Abstract	The COVID-19 pandemic upended American education, throwing schools first into an impromptu version of distance learning in the spring of 2020 followed by a summer beset by uncertainty then delayed and uneven reopenings in the fall. Parents faced tough decisions about their children's education during the pandemic. In July 2020, a poll found that more than 80 percent of parents of K-12 children were concerned about their children getting exposed to coronavirus at school, including 53 percent who were "very concerned." A significant portion of U.S. parents wanted their children to receive high-quality, in-person instruction but concluded that their local schools could not provide it. Faced with uncertainty about the fall of 2020, parents began spontaneously organizing themselves into microschools or "pandemic pods" (also called "parent pods" or "learning pods") during the summer of 2020. Microschools and pods are a 21st-century reimagining of the one-room schoolhouse. Although there are not yet universally accepted definitions of these terms, they generally refer to small clusters of families that pool resources and collaborate to educate their children. Microschools tend to have about five to 15 students, although some self-declared microschools have as many as 150 students. Microschools also tend to have an in-person instructor hired by the students' parents, and they are often affiliated with a larger network or organization. Pods tend to be independently parent-led and even parent-taught, though many pods pool their resources together to hire instructors. This paper argues that microschooling could revolutionize the nation's K-12 education system, providing a wide array of high-quality, affordable learning options that can meet the individual learning needs of each child. This form of education should not be the exclusive privilege of the few but an option for all families. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Heritage Foundation. 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002-4999. Tel: 202-546-4400; Fax: 202-546-8328; e-mail: info@heritage.org; Web site: http://www.heritage.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01