A new study from the National Microschooling Center was released last week with promising preliminary data about microschooling outcomes for students. While the study had some important limitations, and should not be extrapolated to describe microschools generally, it is the first-of-its-kind empirical study and shows promising outcomes for the students involved in the self-selected participating schools.
What are Microschools?
So, what is a microschool? Microschools have skyrocketed over the past five years as many homeschoolers use them as a hybrid option. They are generally private with either a paid teaching staff or sometimes led by parents. They are typically tuition based and serve 16 mixed-age students or fewer.
Microschools operate in a legal gray area, often outside of the traditional K-12 system and are subject to a patchwork of state and local policies. Microschools are still fairly new, so regulation is catching up. This means that depending on the state you live in, you may find that microschools are designated as a private school, charter school, as a homeschool co-op, or have no designation at all. Microschools can look very different from one another seeing as they are built around the learners they serve. We’ve explored microschools pretty throughly, and you can learn more about microschools here.
Measuring The Microschool Experience
The most important component bringing families in the doors of microschools is their small classroom sizes, which allow for individualized attention and socio-emotional support. In fact, more than 90% of microschool students reported strong relationships with teachers across a range of measures while 95% say that they feel safe at school.
Students who are attending microschools are also progressing at the same rate, or better than national norms with more than half exceeding expected growth based on national averages in reading and 47% doing so in math.
Students new to microschools reported more positive experiences than returning students: 86% of new students said this year was better than last while 70% of returning students, and 89% of new students felt they learned much more vs. 79% of returners. This may be due to the novelty of a new microschool or the positive feelings from leaving a worse situation. More research is needed to understand what is causing these results.
Nearly half of the students who were a part of the study had special learning needs, 28% had mental health needs and 14% had a chronic medical condition. Many microschool students with disabilities are using ESA funds, and further analysis is recommended by the lead researchers who conducted the survey for a “cost-benefit analysis” comparing public schools to microschools over a longer period of time.
There was one important limitation from the survey data that should be explored in future studies. In the microschool sample when compared to public and private schools, results from I-Ready’s individual projected student scores were weaker among students in poverty, those in the elementary grades and Black students in math.
There is More to Measure
This study will hopefully be the first of many. Microschools are growing rapidly and this study will hopefully be the first step towards a representative sample of the 1-2 million students and counting. This report presents data from student surveys, parent/caregiver surveys, and student assessments collected during the 2025-2026 school year. In total, 43 microschools participated in the study, operating in 20 states around the country and were a powerful longitudinal look at what microschools are doing across 43 schools. It was a self-selected pool that was not large enough to showcase the variation in the microschool population. Even so, these results show intriguing outcomes that deserve more research. Many questions come from this initial and we look forward to further studies of how microschools are serving students and families.
Researchers who led the study noted that a larger, national study could be useful to be able to understand how microschools are doing in generalizable terms, and additional research into sub-sections of the microschool sector.
As always, we will continue to provide simple, clear information on national microschooling news. We update our blog weekly every Monday, so be sure to check back regularly for the latest homeschooling news, with practical insights for families.