Small Scale School Disruptors Could Impact the Future NCAA Initial Eligibility Process
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From Microschools to Pandemic Pods: Small Scale School Disruptors Could Impact the Future NCAA Initial Eligibility Process
Executive Summary
Microschools are described as somewhere between private schools and homeschooling.
School closures during the pandemic prompted interest from parents and community leaders to create microschools as a means to elevate educational outcomes for their children.
Mothers in the Phoenix area who were frustrated with the public school system took over their children’s education and created several microschools called the ‘Black Mothers Forum’
The Arizona governor pledged $3.5 million to develop 50 more microschools following the creation of the Black Mothers Forum.
Some education organizations, including the National Education Association (NEA), raise concerns about investors and vendors tied to microschools— including operational concerns such as not providing adequate physical space, transportation, Internet connectivity, or meals for participating students.
NEA also allege that vendors and investors tied to microschools plan to leverage state taxpayers to fund the bulk of expenses tied to operating a microschool.
NCAA Initial Eligibility criteria has been impacted by Covid-19, including the continuation of Covid-19 automatic waivers such as flexibility for 2022-23 or 2023-24 enrollees not being required to post qualifying standardized test scores to earn full qualifier status.
The NCAA Eligibility Center may see an increase in microschools coming forward for review and certification so their courses could be used as permissible core courses in the initial eligibility process.
In the college athletics realm, one of the long-standing touch-points NCAA policies have on America’s youth is through the initial eligibility standards required for Division I and Division II freshmen student-athletes to be immediately eligible to receive a scholarship, practice, and compete as a freshmen. The initial eligibility certification process under the jurisdiction of the NCAA Eligibility Center includes certifying core high school courses that may count toward an incoming freshmen’s core-course and core-course GPA requirements.
How high school education is delivered in the 2020s continues to evolve in part due to the pandemic and, in turn, the emergence of microschools and pandemic pods. That evolution in modified learning environments and delivery systems could impact how the NCAA Eligibility Center views courses taught in these new environs.
According to a US News & World Report article, it’s tricky to know exactly how many microschools there are in the country since there is no one national accreditation body. Rules and regulations vary widely, although some states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, are trying to define microschools through new legislation. While all microschools look different, they generally share a number of traits, like personalized, student-centered learning and multiple age groups in the same classroom. Teachers can be parents or professional educators, and in general act as guides rather than lecturers.
Kelly Smith is the founder and CEO of Prenda, a microschool network based in Arizona. He says Prenda’s approach, like many microschools, is to implement practices that are well-known but not often used.
“COVID came along and the traditional classroom was brought into the living room, and most parents have had to ask, 'Is my child learning?' We saw a huge influx of families, maybe that didn’t see the value of the Socratic method or project-based learning” at first, says Smith, but now “there’s a transformation in the way people are thinking about education.”
According to a 74Million’s article, a group of mothers, including many public school teachers, created a network of their own schools after becoming frustrated with public schools. Launched mid-pandemic just one year ago, the mothers’ goal is to grow the seven micoschools into 50.
“We could be advocating 24/7, and still not make the impact that we wanted to see. So, what do you do, do you go charter? Do you try to keep working in the public school system? Nope, nope, not us. We said, well, we can do it ourselves,” said Debora Colbert, executive director of the Black Mothers Forum, a Phoenix-based parent advocacy group.
In mixed-grade classes, students learn at their own pace and are guided by two teachers. Restorative discipline techniques, not punitive strategies, are the norm.
“Microschools evolved out of homeschooling, and are in between private schools and homeschools,” says Tasha Ring, director of Meridian Learning, a Cincinnati organization that advocates for and organizes grassroots microschools.
Arizona’s Governor determined in spring 2021 that microschools were an impactful model to invest in as the state began collaboration with the Black Mothers Forum. “The Black Mothers Forum is determined to create safe and supportive learning environments for our children who are on the path to educational excellence,” said Black Mothers Forum Founder Janelle Wood. “Thank you to Governor Ducey for investing in the future of our children who represent our communities of color. I look forward to working together to continue to meet the needs of families across the state."
A 2021 Ed Next article provided additional history and explanation of what constitutes pandemic pods and microschools:
“With more school districts around the country announcing that fall classes will consist either of full-time remote learning or hybrid learning where children will spend up to a week at home at a time, increasing numbers of parents are taking matters into their own hands."
Some are forming “pandemic pods.” These pods are a do-it-yourself approach to restarting children’s academic progress and social lives after the challenging lockdowns of the spring. In these learning pods, families “bubble” together in small, closed groups to provide and share childcare, curriculum, or both.
These fast-growing pods come in a variety of configurations, as families build them out to suit. A similar response is occurring among online education technology providers and platforms, which are adapting in real time to create a dynamic ecosystem to serve parent needs.
Curriculum and Teachers
In some cases, parents are using tools like Facebook— the main “Pandemic Pods” Facebook group had nearly 40,000 members at one point— to essentially start their own one-room schoolhouses. Families are recruiting teachers to lead their pods and paying as much as $125,000 under these arrangements— more than most teachers make in an ordinary year. Some teachers are figuring out ways to work with multiple pods to increase their earnings.
In other cases, parents are depending on existing online programs to provide instruction for their pod. For curriculum, some families are remaining enrolled in their district school while following that program in their pod. Others are enrolling their children in virtual schools, such as the public charter and private-school programs run by K12, Inc., Connections Academy, or Laurel Springs School.
Although the efficacy of virtual schools, particularly those in the charter sector, has come under attack, families’ willingness to try these types of programs appears to be changing. Relative to the remote learning options a traditional district school is cobbling together, the offerings of virtual charters often look quite robust in comparison, as they provide both curriculum and teachers.
Other families are taking nontraditional pathways by enrolling in so-called microschools, which function as modern-day one-room schoolhouses and many of which use blended learning in their models (see “School Disruption on the Small Scale,” feature, spring 2017), such as Prenda Learning and MyTechHigh. Some families are assembling their own curriculum through online providers like Khan Academy, ABCMouse, The Emile School, and Outschool.
Outschool CEO Amir Nathoo said the company’s enrollments have soared to more than 300,000, compared to 80,000 total in the three years through mid-March 2020. The company is trying to hire 5,000 new teachers to meet the demand. It has also established Outschool.org to provide free classes to families facing financial hardship.
Prenda Learning, which creates groups of 5 to 10 students in grades K-8, has seen its enrollments quadruple in the past year. Prenda partners with charter schools in its home state of Arizona to provide microschools tuition-free. It also accepts education savings account funds through the Empowerment Scholarship Account Program. For learners who live outside of Arizona, Prenda offers a homeschool option called Prenda Family, which includes full curriculum, training, and support for $100 a month per student.
Prenda Learning was the target of a recent report from the National Education Association (NEA), a teacher’s union, which raised a variety of concerns about the infrastructure, operations, and financial motives tied to education companies integrated into microschools. The NEA’s full report is available here.
Which brings us full circle to freshmen eligibility certification; according to the NCAA Eligibility Center website, high schools may be reviewed for a variety of reasons. When the Eligibility Center reviews a high school or other “program” for purposes of using courses for initial eligibility certifications, the Eligibility Center asks for the following required documents to conduct the review:
Information about school policies and operations
Information about curriculum, instruction, and assessment
In addition, the NCAA Eligibility Center has reviewed and certified home-school programs also used by incoming freshmen student-athletes as part of their initial eligibility certification.
As secondary education evolves with the times and in response to the global pandemic, how those educational experiences and course curriculums in microschools and pandemic pods are assessed and reviewed to certify freshmen initial eligibility will be an issue to keep an eye on in the coming years.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
