Frequently asked questions
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The microschool is the reinvention of the one-room schoolhouse, with small class sizes of 4-8 students and mixed-age level groupings. Microschools allow parents to choose the best education for their child's needs and creates a small teacher-to-student ratio so that each student gets individualized attention from the teacher.
SchoolHouse takes the work out of providing your child with the best education. We enable parents to partner up with families in their community to form a microschool with a group of similar-aged kids and match you with the best and brightest educator in your area. Once a match has been made we can register your microschool with your state to ensure compliance and we can even provide a written transcript for your child.
SchoolHouse brings the best parts of education to your home with excellent teachers, small class sizes, and a personalized curriculum. We provide all the tools you need to ensure that your child(ren) receive an enriching, educational experience, with greater flexibility and more personalized attention than traditional schools can offer - all in a safe and inspiring home learning environment.
This isn't just about COVID replacement, we are focusing on building a better way to learn.
Think back to the best education experiences you've had, chances are you're thinking of a teacher. Research supports that teachers have the largest impact on student satisfaction and educational outcomes. SchoolHouse enables parents to choose the teacher that is right for them.
A pod is a group of approximately 4-8 students, of roughly the same grade level, who are learning, socializing, and growing together. We pair a teacher with the pod and then you have your own microschool. Our full-time pods run for 5-6 hours a day, 5 days a week. During that time, students learn reading, writing, math, history, science, and more!
We hire only the best teachers using a rigorous screening process. For every 1 teacher that we hire, we interview approximately 20 candidates. Our teachers have on average 8.5 years of teaching experience, often have advanced degrees, and come highly recommended by colleagues.
We screen and vet every teacher. We recruit teachers from a variety of backgrounds including private, public, and charter schools. We hire only a small percentage of the teachers we interview and offer competitive packages and small class sizes to attract top professionals.
No. We instead focus on recruiting great teachers with several years of teaching experience who are passionate about their subject matter.
We currently provide services for students in grades K-8.
We offer mixed-grade pods so every student doesn't need to be the same age or in the same grade. Since there are just a few students in each pod, the teacher will be able to dedicate individual attention to teach student. For many group based activities, students of different ages or grade levels can all participate. Other times, the teacher will differentiate the learning material.
Yes, the minimum commitment is for one semester.
We offer two standard versions of the program: Full-School Replacement and School Enrichment. Full-School Replacement is 25 hours per week (5 hours per day, 5 days a week) and the School Enrichment program is 10 hours per week (5 hours per day, 2 days per week).
The cost varies depending on your location, the amount of students in the pod, and the amount of experience the teacher has. We believe in paying teachers a livable wage and that includes a generous full-time salary, plus benefits.
Sample price calculator
SchoolHouse does! We take care of the insurance, legal support, academic and curriculum support, contracts, and enrollment. We take care of all of these issues so that you and the teacher can focus on providing the best educational experience possible.
We are currently operating and providing full services in the following areas: Illinois, Texas, New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. In these states we can match you with a pod, match you with a teacher, and take care of all of the administrative work.
For all other areas in the United States, we can provide administrative services (insurance, legal support, academic & curriculum support, contracts, and enrollment) if you already have a pod and a teacher.
We have a Facebook group where parents are trying to meet each other, share tips, and start their pods together. We know how hard forming a pod can be and we are developing tools to help you find other families - more on that to come very soon!
Learning can happen anywhere there is enough space for the students and the teachers. So far, our pods have taken place in backyards, around kitchen tables, in playrooms, and in community spaces.
SchoolHouse provides the supplies you need to have an outstanding learning environment.
With a microschool, you have more opportunities than before to be involved in your student's learning experience but you don't need to be involved day-to-day. It is up to you to decide the level of involvement you will have.
We have an informational webinar that we run every day with a live Q&A with our team. You can register for our live webinar or if you aren't able to join us live you can view a past webinar.
Parents typically form pods with neighbors, friends, or colleagues, that they know and have a social connection with. However, we can also help match you with other parents who have children in the same area, age, and with the same interests.
After you've formed a pod, we require that each pod register and submit a deposit in order to select a teacher. To start that process, you can fill out our Getting Started form and submit your fully-refundable deposit. Once you've done that, we will help match you with one of our greatest teachers. If you don't find any of the teachers we provide to be a great fit, we will refund your deposit. If you select a teacher, the deposit is credited towards your tuition.
Once you've registered and placed your deposit, we'll send you a few resumes of outstanding teachers that have been vetted. You can review their profiles and videos, then choose which ones you would like to interview. We'll coordinate and facilitate those interviews for you. You get to decide which teacher is a good match for the pod.
We will work with our families and the teacher to solve any issues that may arise. If the match ends up not being a good fit, we can replace the teacher with another qualified candidate.
Once you've matched and selected a teacher, we finalize the pod details. This involves a meeting with our pod success team to create your very own personalized school. During this stage, we discuss and agree on the following:
- Education vision/philosophy
- Health & safety requirements
- Curriculum
- Logistics
Yes, we provide ongoing operations support throughout the year. For the teacher, that means we are facilitating academic and curriculum support. For the parents, that means we will continue to provide support with legal, HR, and insurance issues.
We believe that the most important indicator of academic success is the quality of the teacher. We spend a lot of our time recruiting, vetting, and placing outstanding teachers. We're also developing light-weight mechanisms to routinely check that the students are meeting their grade level standards.
SchoolHouse complies with all educational requirements in each state that we operate in. We typically are not required to participate in standardized testing.
SchoolHouse complies with all educational requirements in each state that we operate in.
SchoolHouse provides all the necessary insurance policies for each of our pods. This includes worker's compensation, disability, and a commercial insurance policy.
Part of the microschooling process is making sure that you keep records that your children are making sufficient academic progress. This can vary by state and age-level, but generally it looks like maintaining a portfolio of student work (essays, projects, tests, etc.). Each state has different re-enrollment processes, but every state requires that your local school district re-enroll students who transition from microschool back to public school. States may require some type of entrance exam, or demonstration of grade-level competency, in order to determine grade placement.
It depends on what the shut down order states. We anticipate that we will be able to continue operating even if the public and private schools shut down. We would shut down if a parent decided it was no longer safe. If a decision is made to shut down we can either completely switch to virtual learning or we can shut down completely on a temporary basis and then add those missed hours back in later.
Safety is our highest priority, for your family, the students we work with, and the teacher. We ask all teachers to follow all CDC, state, and local guidelines as it relates to COVID. Beyond that, each pod creates its own health agreement prior to starting, which we have all students, families, and teachers sign-off on.
We have all families and teacher in a pod agree on certain health guidelines and COVID protocols at the beginning of the pod so that there is not any ambiguity about what is expected.
We provide support for every type of curriculum and certified learning method. We work with families to help them find what method best suits them, whether that's a Montessori approach, project-based learning or STEM. Then we work to implement that curriculum with our incredible teachers. Each class is uniquely responsive and learns to match the learning style, pace, and interest of each student.
Supporting students with special needs is one of our top priorities. As part of that commitment, we're putting support services in place now and we plan to hire a director of special education services.
Yes, all of our teachers are full-time employees and can transition to a full-school replacement option if the pod is interested!
Teacher help center
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