National Hybrid Schools Project - Coles College of Business

Mission

The National Hybrid Schools Project is the national clearinghouse for research, data, practices, and networking for the burgeoning hybrid home school movement.

The purpose of the Hybrid Schools Project is to document and analyze the variety of independent actors who are creating these new forms of K-12 schooling outside of the conventional education system. The project explores the many ways individuals and small groups are finding different ways to serve families’ and students’ diverse needs. Over time, the project will produce unique datasets and analyses for publication. The Hybrid Schools Project will also act as a convener to bring together hybrid and microschool founders, educators, policymakers, and researchers interested in these school models.

Community Crafted Education Podcast

The landscape of hybrid and microschools in various forms – what we will call “community crafted education” – has grown substantially in recent years. On this podcast we will talk about the downstream effects of school choice and especially community crafted education models. Host Eric Wearne, Director of the National Hybrid Schools Project, talks with people who are mostly not a part of the school choice world, about how these new options are affecting or could potentially affect their various fields.

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Hybrid Schools and Microschools

What is a hybrid school?

In their most common form these schools operate 2-3 days per week in brick and mortar buildings, with classes of students, teachers who assign work, etc. The balance of the week, these students are homeschooled. (Individual schools might offer classes in other weekly formats, such a four half days per week, for example, or give students the flexibility to come an amount up to four days per week). The defining characteristics of these schools are that most or all of the curriculum is decided by the school, students attend live classes a few days per week in a physical building, and are “homeschooled” the rest of the week.

What is a microschool?

The Christiansen Institute’s Michael Horn has suggested that “micro schools” follow a variety of structure, but generally “model a combination of one-room schoolhouse, blended learning, home schooling and private schooling.”2

[1] Wearne, E. (2016). “A descriptive survey of why parents choose hybrid homeschools.” Journal of School Choice, 10(3), 364-380.

2 Horn, M. (2015). “The rise of AltSchool and other micro-schools.” EducationNext 15, 3.

News

Involved Members

Eric Wearne
Director
ewearne@kennesaw.edu

Eric Wearne is Associate Professor in the Education Economics Center at Kennesaw State University and Director of the Hybrid Schools Project. He is the author of Defining Hybrid Homeschools in America: Little Platoons (Lexington Books, 2020). His work has been published by the Peabody Journal of Education, the Journal of School Choice, Catholic Social Science Review, City Journal, and Law & Liberty, among others. He was previously Provost at Holy Spirit College, Associate Professor of Education Foundations at Georgia Gwinnett College, Director of Data Analysis and Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement in Atlanta, and a high school English and Debate teacher. He holds a PhD in Educational Studies from Emory University, a MA in English Education from the University of Georgia, and a BA in English from Florida State University.

John Thompson
Research Associate
jthom861@kennesaw.edu

John Thompson is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University. Prior to joining Kennesaw State University, John was a researcher at the Texas Schools Project, where he investigated the impact of policies related to student access and success in higher education within Texas. Dr. Thompson's research interests include the Economics of Education, Program Evaluation, and Labor Economics. His research on articulation agreements in Texas has been presented at the Association for Education and Finance Policy (AEFP) and the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM). He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2019.