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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Gisela Quinones is a homeschooling mother of three children who lives just outside of Chicago. She is the founder of LatinosHomeschooling.org, providing resources, support, classes, and community for Latino homeschooling families across the U.S.
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Entrepreneurship is challenging, but cultivating a community of education entrepreneurs can make the experience more personally and professionally rewarding. In this episode, education entrepreneurs Shiren Rattigan of Colossal Academy and Toni Frallicciardi of Surf Skate Science discuss why they teamed up to create the Innovative Educators Network to collaborate with local founders—and why they recommend other education entrepreneurs do the same.
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Melissé Segesman is the homeschool director and a teacher at Montessori Peaks Academy, a tuition-free homeschool enrichment program run through the Jefferson County public school district in Colorado. Melissé has a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a Montessori certificate, and she has been serving the Montessori Peaks Homeschool Community since 2014.
Montessori Peaks Academy is a unique public program that caters to homeschooled children ages 5 to 13 who attend part-time during the week. It blends Montessori principles, a project-based approach, and ample time in nature, fostering a holistic, well-rounded educational experience.
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Once a booming area buoyed by the automotive industry, Highland Park, a city just outside of Detroit, has faced decades of blight. In 2011, the city repossessed more than two-thirds of Highland Park’s residential streetlights due to outstanding electric bills. The streetlights were removed, literally leaving residents in the dark.
It was around this time that a visionary woman known to everyone as Mama Shu, decided to embrace a mission of “blight to beauty” for her Highland Park neighborhood known as Avalon Village. She began buying up crumbling properties on her rundown street, having solar-powered lighting installed, renovating buildings or tearing them down and replacing them with new shipping containers to house small shops run by local entrepreneurs. She was named one of CNN’s Heroes.
One of Avalon Village’s great accomplishments is The Homework House, a renovated single family home that now serves as a meeting space for local youth. There, young people can enjoy a warm meal, get help with homework, and gain important life skills.
Under the guidance of our guest today, education director Boniswa Brock, who was a public school teacher and administrator for 35 years, The Homework House also serves as a warm and welcoming hub for local homeschooled students who enjoy daily access to the space for classes and enrichment opportunities.
Boniswa is currently preparing to launch a STEM-focused, child-centered preschool, called Every Child Is A Genius, at The Homework House, but has encountered regulatory snares that have delayed the preschool’s opening. We talk about that frustration and more on today’s episode.
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The Sudbury Valley School is a self-directed, democratic school located in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1968 and has inspired the growth of dozens of Sudbury-model schools around the world over the past half-century. The Sudbury model is based on the belief that children learn best when they have the freedom to explore their interests and take responsibility for their own education. Today's podcast guest is a Sudbury Valley School alumna who now sends her children there and who recently became a staff member.
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Ian Lindsey is the cofounder, along with his wife Stephanie, of Acton Academy St. George in St. George, Utah. It is part of the fast-growing Acton Academy network of learner-driven microschools that includes more than 300 independently owned and operated schools, serving thousands of learners. Ian and Stephanie launched their microschool in fall 2020 with 12 students in their home. They grew to 22 students in their first year, and today have 40 students, pre-K through elementary ages, with plans to open a middle school in Fall 2025 and grow from there.
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Sherrilynn Bair is a certified teacher and school librarian who works for the Snake River Public School District in rural Blackfoot, Idaho. In this episode, she shares her experience with in-system innovation, explaining how she created an entirely new school within her district that focuses on personalized learning and curriculum customization.
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Ross Hill has been in education for over 15 years, with most of that time spent working as a high social studies teacher in public schools. He quit his teaching job in 2023 to launch Mariner Learning Collaborative, a self-directed learning center in Florence, South Carolina. Mariner is part of the Liberated Learners network of non-coercive, self-directed learning centers for homeschoolers that was launched in 2013. Mariner is the first faith-focused learning center in the Liberated Learners network.
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Kristine Fringer was a college administrator for almost two decades before leaving higher education to launch Symbiosis, a learning center for middle school and high school-age homeschoolers located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Kristine opened Symbiosis in the fall of 2019. She currently serves 20 students with both full- and part-time enrollment options.
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Today’s episode is special in that I am joined by both a school founder and a parent so we’ll hear two interesting perspectives on the draw toward alternative education options.
Sarah Max is a former public school teacher who cofounded Acton Invictus in 2021 in Leander, Texas, just outside of Austin. Acton Invictus is part of the global Acton Academy microschool network that was founded in 2009 and now includes over 300 schools serving thousands of learners.
Tim Tran is an entrepreneur and one of Acton Invictus’s original founding parents. He moved to Texas specifically so that his children could attend an Acton Academy.
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