School Disruption on the Small Scale: Can Micro-Schools Break Out of an Elite Niche?

Autor/in	Cohen, Justin C.
Titel	School Disruption on the Small Scale: Can Micro-Schools Break Out of an Elite Niche?
Quelle	In: Education Next, 17 (2017) 2, S.28-33 (6 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1539-9664
Schlagwörter	School Schedules; Small Schools; Educational Practices; Educational Innovation; Student Needs; Equal Education; Empowerment; Creative Teaching; Elementary Secondary Education; Massachusetts + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Schulzeiteinteilung; School; Schools; Schule; Bildungspraxis; Instructional innovation; Bildungsinnovation; Creative thinking; Teaching; Kreatives Denken; Unterricht; Master-Studiengang
Abstract	NuVu is an off-the-grid, independent "micro-school" in Massachusetts, whose 60 students are stretching the boundaries of what constitutes education in America. Instead of switching between subject-driven classes that teach a common curriculum, they follow a fluid schedule in two-week blocks, and apply math, reading, problem-solving, and other skills to the project at hand. With the help of visiting experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), they bring their ideas to life on the milling machines and 3-D printers that fill the materials lab. Such boutique programs offer highly personalized environments on a tiny scale, in a tech-enabled reinvention of the one-room schoolhouse that eschews lockstep schedules and standard curricula for student-led learning. They represent a handful of private schools in the country today, but their rapid growth and embrace of sought-after "deeper learning" goals raise important questions about how to scale and democratize the approach. Education futurists have predicted the disintegration of the 19th-century model of American schooling for many years, but the barriers to that transformation have been limited by both the intransigence of the current system and a lack of imagination about what might replace it. Micro-schooling and its teacher-led, entrepreneurial spirit might solve both of these problems, by evading the old habits, sclerotic bureaucracies, cultural biases against experimentation, antiquated labor arrangements, and low tolerance for risk that prevail in traditional schools. The ground-up genesis of the micro-school movement, however, offers as many challenges as it does opportunities. Perhaps the most pressing question is whether or not micro-schools and their offshoots can ever serve all children, regardless of their incoming academic skills and ability to pay tuition. This article addresses the equity and scale challenges facing micro-schools and discusses how micro-schools empower students and teachers. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://educationnext.org/journal/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01