by Rachel Fradette, The Hechinger Report
March 2, 2026
GREENFIELD, Ind. — Seventh grader Taitym Lynch plans most of her college day herself, mapping out a schedule every morning on her college laptop computer. She usually begins with math when her mind is sharpest, logging into a web-based platform her college makes use of for math classes. Subsequent she usually tackles science together with her “class information,” a instructing assistant who walks her although matters like animal meals chains. Lynch chooses to have lunch round midday, and finds time to take breaks within the woods that encompass her college, Nature’s Present.
Lynch, 13, got here to Nature’s Present this fall after years in a conventional public college. She stored attempting to adapt, however her nervousness made it tough. “Truthfully, I had issues with college,” Lynch mentioned. “I did not really feel like going day-after-day.” She additionally had a short stint in digital college.
To this point, Lynch is pleased at Nature’s Present. She feels snug asking questions of lecturers and likes the small dimension. There are simply 64 children in grades kindergarten via twelfth, taught by three licensed lecturers and several other class guides who present additional help.
Lynch is the type of scholar George Philhower had in thoughts when he helped begin Nature’s Present — certainly one of a small however rising variety of public “microschools” throughout the nation.
Philhower is the superintendent of Jap Hancock Group Colleges, a rural district of 1,200 college students about 30 miles east of Indianapolis. He’d nervous for years concerning the district’s monetary well being as extra households whose children didn’t thrive in public college thought of homeschooling.
Across the similar time, the idea of microschooling was gaining traction nationally. Microschools provide multiage studying environments that target customized, usually less-regulated instruction. Recognition grew in the course of the pandemic when households sought studying alternate options in on-line, hybrid and pod choices; an estimated 750,000 to 2 million college students now attend the colleges.
The colleges are usually privately run, however Philhower noticed a job for them in his small district. Final 12 months, he gained approval from the state’s constitution college board to determine the Indiana Microschool Collaborative, which he says will incubate a community of microschools statewide. They’ll function as constitution faculties, that means they’re public however have extra flexibility by way of curricula and different operations than conventional public faculties.
Nature’s Present, the primary such college, acquired so many purposes for its unique 50 spots that it twice added extra seats and nonetheless has a ready listing. Philhower hopes that by 2030, the community will add at the least 10 extra faculties and enroll some 6,000 college students statewide. Phrase is spreading: He mentioned he’s acquired inquiries concerning the mannequin from college district leaders and training organizations from elsewhere within the state and past.
“The curiosity has been greater than we ever imagined,” Philhower mentioned.
Whereas some authorities and training leaders reward the general public microschool mannequin as an modern strategy to permit extra customized approaches to studying, it’s far too quickly to know the extent to which they’ll reach successfully educating college students or stemming falling enrollment. Some consultants additionally fear that the innovation that has outlined microschools could also be misplaced because the mannequin expands.
“American training is populated with fads and failed reforms and that kind of factor, issues that do not work out, and it is exhausting to begin a faculty and maintain it,” mentioned Christopher Lubienski, director of the Middle for Analysis and Training Coverage at Indiana College. Nonetheless, he mentioned the collaborative mannequin in Indiana may give the colleges a powerful shot at succeeding.
Don Soifer, CEO of the Nationwide Microschooling Middle, an business nonprofit that works to develop the microschool motion, estimates that solely about 5 % of the nation’s microschools are public constitution faculties. However his group hears from public college superintendents in states with college selection who’re curious concerning the mannequin, he mentioned. “They’re dropping a few of their greatest lecturers and households to microschools, they usually need to get out in entrance of that.”
In response to a 2025 evaluation of greater than 800 microschools his group performed, greater than 40 % of scholars beforehand attended district-operated faculties or have been homeschooled earlier than enrolling in a microschool.
Indiana’s public faculties, in the meantime, have been dropping enrollment since 2008. Simply over 1 million college students attend them, whereas about 70,000 college students obtain college vouchers for personal faculties via the state’s voucher program, began in 2011. An estimated 8 % homeschool, above the nationwide common.
Scott Bess, a board member for the Indiana Microschool Collaborative, mentioned he thinks Philhower has discovered a center floor for some rural households who selected to homeschool solely as a result of they didn’t produce other personal choices equivalent to close by personal faculties. “It should really feel like a small personal college, nevertheless it’s public,” Bess mentioned.
Philhower mentioned he understands that some folks may query why a public college superintendent is embracing and rising constitution faculties, however that’s what his neighborhood requested of him. “Faculty selection is not going wherever, particularly in Indiana,” he mentioned.
Certainly, the state’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, is an advocate of selection and microschools, and promoted them throughout a July go to to the state from Training Secretary Linda McMahon. Indiana goes to supply microschool choices to folks so “they’ll educate their children in a means that they assume is smart,” he has mentioned.
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At Nature’s Present — situated at a 12-acre youth camp surrounded by woods that features 4 barn-red cabins and a primary constructing leased by the college — studying is customized, with most of the center and excessive schoolers managing components of their day by day schedule. College students advance by displaying potential or exhibiting curiosity in a topic, not by grade degree, testing or age alone.
Most college students additionally take part in hybrid studying and are homeschooled half the time.
Erin Wolski, lead educator of Nature’s Present, helps with courses for elementary via highschool college students, whereas working day-to-day operations. At any given time, she is likely to be main group math work, hopping on a walkie-talkie to reply a trainer’s query or taking children on a nature hike.
Earlier than becoming a member of Nature’s Present, Wolski spent greater than 16 years in conventional public faculties, most just lately within the Jap Hancock district, her alma mater. In early 2025, she approached Philhower about wanting a change, and he informed her about his plans for Nature’s Present. Collectively, they began the college. Most of its funds income comes from state per-pupil spending and a few state grants, like one for qualifying constitution faculties that funds as much as $1,400 per scholar.
One other Nature’s Present trainer, Christina Grandstaff, additionally taught in conventional public faculties for years. She mentioned she prefers how responsive Nature’s Present could be to particular person college students’ wants. “We’re nonetheless doing all of the issues that it is advisable to do for public college, however now we have the flexibleness,” she mentioned. “We’re exterior extra, or we will study exterior, or now we have children that transfer from that group as much as this degree.”
The college has a really completely different relationship with mother and father than conventional public faculties.
Danielle Maroska enrolled her daughter, Kinzie, in Nature’s Present after homeschooling her for years. She initially selected homeschooling partially to accommodate Kinzie’s athletic schedule: The 11-year-old is a gymnast who spends 16 hours per week working towards.
“Covid actually opened the doorways for homeschooling to be sufficient,” Maroska mentioned. “Most of her gymnast mates are homeschooled, so we went that route, and we did that for a pair years.”
However Kinzie started to overlook having a way of neighborhood. This fall, she started attending Nature’s Present full days on Mondays and half days the remainder of the week. Her mom homeschools her these afternoons when she’s not on the health club. Maroska describes herself as a “co-captain” in her daughter’s training, with Wolski being the captain.
Since attending Nature’s Present, Maroska mentioned she’s observed her daughter’s strategy to studying change. She used to hate studying, Maroska mentioned, however now she recurrently curls up with a e-book, even forward of pickup time in early December.
“I really feel like that is type of how school is, in a way,” Maroska mentioned. “It is making them take initiative to information their very own studying.”
Nonetheless, Maroska mentioned Nature’s Present isn’t proper for all children. Her two sons, within the second and eighth grades, are thriving at a conventional public college in Jap Hancock, she mentioned, and he or she would by no means pull them from that faculty until one thing modified.
Against this, mom Jen Shipley mentioned she was initially skeptical of Nature’s Present, by no means having significantly thought of public training for her homeschooled 9-year-old. However like Maroska, she appreciates the flexibleness and shut relationships with lecturers. Her daughter, Elliana, attends the college roughly three days per week and is homeschooled the opposite two.
“We really feel like companions in her training, versus I am simply handing her over and I simply must deal,” Shipley mentioned.
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As a public constitution college, Nature’s Present should take state assessments, in contrast to personal microschools that don’t. To this point, the outcomes have been combined. On state benchmark assessments in November, nearly all of college students, 70 %, scored beneath proficient in math whereas solely 10 college students, or 30 %, scored beneath proficient in English and language arts, based on Wolski.
She mentioned it’s too quickly to make use of scholar check scores to judge the college because it’s been open lower than a 12 months. She famous too that her college students have been educated in a wide range of settings earlier than becoming a member of the college.
Just one-third of microschools affiliated with the Nationwide Microschooling Middle take state assessments, based on the Las Vegas-based nonprofit, so information on their efficiency total is restricted.
Some microschool researchers fear that as public microschools are more and more evaluated based mostly on state assessments, they might turn out to be extra beholden to that accountability framework and a few of what makes them modern may disappear. “If that high-stakes accountability piece is there, it’s inevitable that faculties must change their operations to lean extra in direction of acting on these metrics,” mentioned Lauren Covelli, an affiliate coverage researcher at Rand, a analysis group, who research microschools.
She added: “With so many college selection choices in Indiana, particularly, if households don’t desire their little one to be taking a standardized check, it is most likely not the selection for them.”
For households and educators who’ve chosen Nature’s Present, the long run appears encouraging. “That is sustainable, as a result of so many mother and father are searching for one thing completely different,” mentioned Wolski, the trainer and co-founder. “They’ve extra entry to issues now than they ever did earlier than.”
As 3 p.m. neared on a current weekday, Grandstaff wrapped up a lesson and despatched some college students to the principle constructing for pickup, then checked on a scholar who was finding out at his laptop computer exterior within the 20-degree climate. “He prefers it,” the trainer mentioned.
Wolski mentioned she doesn’t need to be a part of undoing what’s taking place in conventional faculties however, slightly, constructing extra choices into the general public college system. “Households need various things,” she mentioned. “Children need various things.”
Nature’s Present nonetheless has an extended strategy to go, she mentioned, however she is motivated to maintain constructing it.
“Mother and father are pleased. Children are pleased,” Wolski mentioned. “So we’re going to maintain going.”
Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, through Sign at CarolineP.83 or on e-mail at preston@hechingerreport.org.
This story about microschools was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, unbiased information group centered on inequality and innovation in training. Join the Hechinger e-newsletter.
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