Everyone got a taste of virtual learning in 2020, in the wake of widespread school closures. But the district Zoom schooling that most families encountered was nothing like what real, high-quality, virtual learning platforms can offer. These platforms are designed for an online environment, with curriculum tailored to that medium and with teachers who enthusiastically seek out, and are well trained in, virtual instruction. One of these high-quality, well-established virtual platforms is Arizona State University Prep Digital, or ASU Prep Digital for short.
As someone both personally and professionally interested in ASU Prep Digital and similar high-quality online learning models, I invited ASU Prep Managing Director and Vice President of Educational Outreach, Julie Young, to join me on today’s episode. Julie was the founding President and CEO of the Florida Virtual School, the world’s first virtual statewide school district that began as a small IBM grant initiative in the 1990s and grew to become the largest public K-12 program in the U.S.
Iman Alleyne is the founder of Kind Academy and creator of Launch Your Kind, an accelerator program for those interested in opening their own microschools!
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Kaity Broadbent is the Chief Empowerment Advocate at Prenda, the national network that has helped to launch hundreds of microschools serving thousands of learners since 2018. A homeschooling mom, Kaity is a thoughtful and insightful voice on the topic of personalized learning and alternative education models. Prior to Prenda, Kaity was a Speech-Language Pathologist in public schools, literacy coach, and curriculum designer. She's a certified peaceful parenting coach and mom to four Prenda kids ages 4 to 11.
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Denise Lever was a firefighter turned homeschooling mom who launched a Prenda microschool in August 2020 in the rural town of Eager, Arizona in Apache County, which is one of the poorest counties in the US and one of only 3 counties in the entire country where neither English nor Spanish is the primary language spoke at home. In Apache County, that language is Navajo. Denise is also an administrator of 5 other independently operated Prenda microschools in her town of Eager.
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When Shari Robinson's oldest son wasn't thriving in public school, she pulled him out for homeschooling and then began homeschooling her other children as well. It was her personal experience of homeschooling her own children that inspired Shari over the years to create various STEM activities for local homeschoolers, including continuing to lead one of the highest-ranked robotics teams in the state.
Those efforts evolved into Homeschool Resources Group and Pierian Spring Academy of Arts & Sciences, two low-cost education organizations located in Mechanicsville, Virginia, just outside of Richmond. Homeschool Resources Group serves as a membership-based learning center for homeschoolers, while Pierian Spring Academy is a small, recognized K-12 private school that uses a variety of individualized curriculum resources.
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Eric Oglesbee is a school founder turned funder. He helped to launch River Montessori High School in South Bend, Indiana that is currently the only high school in the expanding Wildflower Montessori microschool network. After his experience as a founder, Eric joined The Drexel Fund in 2022. The Drexel Fund is a nonprofit philanthropic fund that provides seed and next-stage funding to high-quality private schools serving low-income students and those with learning differences.
Apply to Drexel's Founders Program.
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Imani Jackson is an experienced educator currently working as an elementary school teacher in a traditional private school who is launching Poinciana Montessori in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia this fall as part of the fast-growing Wildflower Montessori microschool network.
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My guest today is Eric Wearne, Associate Professor at the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and Director of the National Hybrid Schools Project. He is also the author of the 2020 book, Defining Hybrid Homeschools in America: Little Platoons.
Eric was previously on the podcast in the spring of 2022 ahead of his inaugural Hybrid Schools Conference. That event was such a huge success that he has expanded the conference each year to larger venues in Atlanta, and this year is also hosting the Western Hybrid & Microschools Forum in San Diego on March 2nd to showcase what’s happening with hybrid and microschools on the West Coast.
There’s still time to register for both conferences!
Western Hybrid & Microschools Forum - San Diego, March 2nd - Registration link
3rd Annual Hybrid Schools Conference - Atlanta, April 19-20th - Registration link
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Angel Sobrino is the founder and director of learning of The Hive Interactive, a homeschooling program and learning platform that embraces passion-driven, self-directed learning, empowering young people to chart their own unique pathways toward adulthood.
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I first met Marissa Hess back in 2022 at the inaugural National Hybrid Schools Conference in Atlanta. She is a former public school teacher and Montessori teacher who was homeschooled for most of her childhood and ultimately returned to the homeschooling model as the founder of Urban Cottage Educational Collaborative in Tampa, Florida that currently serves 84 mixed-age learners with 10 teachers.
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Angie Wakeman and Rebecca Foley are the founders of Providence Hybrid Academy, a faith-based, Charlotte Mason-inspired hybrid homeschool program in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, a little over an hour outside of Philadelphia. They launched their program as a small co-op in 2016 and today have 145 students in grades K-9, with 15 teachers, 7 aids and administrative staff, and a long waitlist.
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