Microschools are Popping Up Across Brooklyn

Unlike a homeschool, microschool students are led by a tenured and experienced in-person teacher. Lessons take place in a social group setting — much like a traditional classroom but with a much lower teacher-student ratio. This way, the teacher can adjust and focus on the individual needs of each student. It’s the perfect setting for a child whose learning style is incongruous with their current school system.

Inspired by the concept of the one-room school house, microschools allow parents to work closely with the teacher to meet the students’ needs, interests, and values by customizing the curriculum. This means if you always wanted to send your child to a Montessori school, integrate time in nature, or add lessons in religion, arts or advanced sciences, now you can.

SchoolHouse believes that when you pair a great teacher with small class sizes magic happens. This should come as no surprise. The power of small class sizes was first popularized by educational researcher Benjamin Bloom who found that reducing class size creates dramatically better learning outcomes. Bloom’s research showed that with one-on-one attention, an average student could perform above 98% of the control class.

And the teachers are top notch. Heather Swain, the teacher at the Cobble Hill SchoolHouse, has a masters degree in Philosophy of Education, has been a classroom teacher in the Japanese public school system, a private school teacher in Brooklyn, and the creative director of a public K – 5th grade after school program for 400 children.

“It’s not just the academics that we’re individualizing for the students, which is great and important, but it’s the community that we build that is so safe.  A large part of why the students are flourishing is that they’re not dealing with the stress of daily existence in a big school.”