Pop Culture dictionary
microschool
or micro-school or micro school [ mahy-kroh-skool ]
What does microschooling听尘别补苍?
A microschool is a small, usually private school that typically has between 10鈥100 students.
While they predate the COVID-19 pandemic, microschools gained prominence in 2020 as traditional schools closed, moving much of learning at-home and online.
Looking for some educational activities? Check out聽Parent and Teacher Center聽for a wealth of resources.
Where does microschool come from?

Microschool blends school with micro, meaning 鈥渆xtremely small.鈥 Microschools are indeed small, as some enroll no more than a dozen or so students. Evidenced as early as 2010, the term microschool has been credited to British education blogger Cushla Barry, although its exact origins are unknown.
At this time, some intentionally small private schools were founded in such places as Austin, Texas, Brooklyn, New York, and San Francisco, California. In the latter city, for instance, entrepreneur and former software engineer Gever Tulley co-founded a microschool called Brightworks in 2011; a 2014 NPR story on the microschooling trend credited Tulley with coining the term 鈥渉yper-local micro-school.鈥
Fun to hang out with Anya Kamenetz (author of DIYU) at yesterday. We both like the "hyper-local micro-school" idea.
— gever tulley (@gever)
Inspired by a similar movement in the United Kingdom, more small private schools opened throughout the 2010s, seeking to update the one-room schoolhouse for the twenty-first century. Microschools are also often motivated by a desire to provide much more intensively student-centered education than some families feel public schools can鈥攁nd at a more affordable tuition than private options.
Currently, there is no one governmental or educational definition of a microschool, but microschools share common features. In practice, microschools are considered to blend aspects of private schooling 听补苍诲 homeschooling.
Typically, a microschool usually has anywhere from a dozen to several dozen students of a variety of ages and grade levels. Often consisting of a single classroom run out of a family鈥檚 home, the teacher of a microschool works to personalize the curriculum for each student, often utilizing digital, hands-on, project-based methods.
Legally, microschools are generally considered private schools because many of them charge tuition鈥攁nd this means microschools have to adhere to their respective state and local laws for accreditation.
Microschools gained more mainstream attention in 2020. As most traditional schools had to close due to the COVID-19 virus (which spreads easily in close, indoor gatherings, as commonly form in hallways and on buses, for instance), some parents looked to microschools as a potentially safer, more engaging, in-person alternative to virtual offerings.
Some parents even collaborated to form small, informal learning groups in their communities to supplement their children鈥檚 virtual schooling from their local district. These groups have been called learning pods, pandemic pods, and microschools, though they are not full-fledged, private operations as such.
Examples of microschool
Who uses microschool?
In 2020, microschool became increasingly used to refer to ways various caretakers have resourcefully and creatively worked together to support the demands of schooling, working, parenting, and living amid the coronavirus pandemic.
For instance, a few parents whose kids go to the same school may take turns hosting small groups at their house throughout the week, providing social interaction for the students and opportunities for more focused help with their assigned work鈥攁nd a break for the adults as they juggle their own jobs and responsibilities. Some parents may even hire tutors and teachers for additional support. While popularly called microschools, these cooperative pods or bubbles are generally not replacing their students鈥 public or private schooling by enrolling them into proper microschools.
Have you heard of a "micro-school?" 's explains how old becomes new again in education:
— Jim Ryan (@presjimryan)
New terms I鈥檓 learning today: Nano school, micro school, pandemic pods. (Seemingly synonymous? I can鈥檛 tell. Help me out there.) It鈥檚 a fascinating thing to watch these pop up as parents scramble for fall 2021 options in the Seattle area!
— Becky Keene 鉀 (@BeckyKeene)
Parents in Poway join forces for 'micro-school' to help with distance learning
— 10News (@10News)
Curious, does homeschooling have to be provided by a parent? If not, is there any licensing requirements for the teacher/provider/facility. Never thought about the option of creating a micro-school.
— hruby (@hrustar)
Learn more about other ways we’ve been adapting to schooling during COVID-19 in our Vocab Builder on聽homeschool and virtual as well as our article on聽virtual school鈥攚hose meaning may overlap many other similar terms, including聽online school,听online education,听online learning,听remote education,听remote learning, and聽distance learning.
Still curious about more? Master the meaning of聽asynchronous in our article 鈥’Asynchronous’ vs. ‘Synchronous’: Time To Learn The Difference.”
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of microschool like most terms we define on 亚洲网紅露点, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of microschool that will help our users expand their word mastery.