Beyond Chartering Schools – Microschooling and Pods for Authorizers
Presentation to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers 2020 Leadership Conference
Nevada Action’s Don Soifer, along with with InspireNOLA CEO Jamar McKneely and national charter school guru Nelson Smith, made this presentation addressing aspects of microschooling important to charter school authorizers on October 27, 2020. The presentation discusses challenges Pandemic Pods present to charter schooling, including those related to equity for all students as well as to measuring success within existing charter school (and public school) accountability systems, and factors relating to many state requirements governing public charter schools such as seat-time and facilities requirements.
Current demands for nontraditional schooling solutions during pandemic and post-pandemic conditions around the country were also discussed. “Authorizing much small, possibly temporary learning sites could require reframing what’s meant by ‘school,'” the authors observe. As charter schools, such as InspireNOLA, explore workable “Pandemic Pod,” solutions, and the appeal of microschooling expands, charter school authorizers will need new approaches, and new tools, to extend chartering principals and practices to their oversight.
