LiberatED Podcast

Sherrilynn Bair is a certified teacher and school librarian who works for the Snake River Public School District in rural Blackfoot, Idaho. In this episode, she shares her experience with in-system innovation, explaining how she created an entirely new school within her district that focuses on personalized learning and curriculum customization. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newslette...

Ross Hill has been in education for over 15 years, with most of that time spent working as a high social studies teacher in public schools. He quit his teaching job in 2023 to launch Mariner Learning Collaborative , a self-directed learning center in Florence, South Carolina. Mariner is part of the Liberated Learners network of non-coercive, self-directed learning centers for homeschoolers that wa...

Kristine Fringer was a college administrator for almost two decades before leaving higher education to launch Symbiosis , a learning center for middle school and high school-age homeschoolers located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Kristine opened Symbiosis in the fall of 2019. She currently serves 20 students with both full- and part-time enrollment options. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, w...

Today's episode is special in that I am joined by both a school founder and a parent so we'll hear two interesting perspectives on the draw toward alternative education options. Sarah Max is a former public school teacher who cofounded Acton Invictus in 2021 in Leander, Texas, just outside of Austin. Acton Invictus is part of the global Acton Academy microschool network that was founded in 2009 an...

Tobin Slaven is the founder of Acton Academy Fort Lauderdale who was previously on the podcast in fall 2022 ( episode #46 ) to talk about the launch of his microschool. I'm delighted to have Tobin back on the podcast today to kick off 2024 with a conversation about artificial intelligence, technology, techno-optimism, and the future of learning. In addition to leading his microschool, Tobin is als...

Kyle Gamba is a former public school teacher and principal who in 2021 launched La Luz , a learner-centered lab school focusing on experiential learning for Latino students in Denver, Colorado. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at  fee.org/liberated .

When Katelyn Shore opened the first Wildflower Montessori microschool in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2014, she hoped it would be the start of something big. The vision, introduced by Sep Kamvar at the MIT Media Lab, was to create an open-source network of intentionally small, storefront, neighborhood Montessori microschools that would offer the tools and technology to enable teacher-entrepreneurs...

My guest today is Christina Poole, a homeschooling mom of 7 children ages 18 months to 12 years, and cofounder of City Schoolhouse , a low-cost private school in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky. Christina opened City Schoolhouse in early 2017 with 9 students, plus her own 5 children at the time. Today, City Schoolhouse has 45 full-time students, with afterschool programs and vacation camps for l...

What a pleasure to have Lenore Skenazy on the podcast today to talk about a variety of topics but mostly how to give our children the freedom and responsibility that many of us enjoyed as children, before structure and surveillance came to dominate American childhood. Lenore is the author of the popular book, Free-Range Kids , now in its second edition, and is the co-founder and president of Let G...

Originally from Venezuela, Gaby Narvaez and Andrea Hantman met in the U.S. and launched  P.L.A.Y. School Academy (Passion Learning Approach Year-Round), a K-12 microschool in South Florida. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

Tom Bogle is a former public high school teacher turned microschool guide and now cofounder of Microschool Solutions , an organization that helps to activate new microschools across the US and support new founders. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

  My guest today is Becky McNichols, founder of Rooted Life Academy , a home-based microschool/homeschool enrichment program in the Kansas City area. Becky taught in public schools for 15 years, including most recently in a Title I public school that served predominantly low-income and migrant students. She grew increasingly drained by her public school teaching job and resigned in the spring of 2...

Nathan Fellman was a public middle school teacher and administrator in New Hampshire for nearly 20 years before leaving his job to launch a middle school microschool program in fall 2022. Nate and two of his colleagues from the public school system opened The Harkness House in Nashua, New Hampshire that emphasizes personalized learning for 6th thru 9th graders. Harkness House also offers hybrid ho...

Sharon Masinelli is the founder and head of school at St. John the Baptist Hybrid School in Kennesaw, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. Students attend the drop-off program two to three days a week, learning from an assortment of 30 educators, while homeschooling on the remaining days. Sharon launched her hybrid school in 2019 with 47 students. Today, her program has 120 students in kindergarten throug...

Jack Johnson Pannell is the Head of School and Founder of Trinity Arch Preparatory School for Boys in Phoenix, Arizona, a microschool that launched this fall to serve boys ages 7 to 14. Prior to launching this new school, Jack was the founder of an all-boys public charter school in Baltimore, Maryland called Baltimore Collegiate.  *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education...

Happy Thanksgiving! A special note of gratitude to all the entrepreneurs out there. You are the true engines of human progress. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

It is such an honor to have Jeff Sandefer on the podcast today to talk about his experience as the co-founder, along with his wife Laura, of the fast-growing microschool network, Acton Academy. Jeff and Laura launched the first Acton Academy in Austin, Texas in 2009. Today, there are over 300 Acton Academies worldwide, serving thousands of learners.  *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email news...

More than a decade ago, Dani Foltz-Smith sent her two girls to a new school that had recently opened in Austin, Texas. It was the flagship Acton Academy, launched in 2009 by Jeff and Laura Sandefer to prioritize learner-driven education and enable each child to pursue his or her own "hero's journey." Dani's family adored their Acton experience so much that when they needed to move back to Los Ange...

Refine KC is a full-time, faith-based microschool in the Kansas City, Missouri area that launched in August 2022 with 15 K-12 students. Today, it is at capacity with 40 students, 6 teachers, and a waiting list. Three of Refine KC's founders are with us on today's podcast to talk about why their school is so popular. "Church-Based Microschools Are 'Sprouting Everywhere'" (The Lion) *** Sign up for...

Mercedes Grant and Isis Spann are two founders who launched their microschools this fall in Virginia and South Carolina, respectively. They share their startup experiences, surprises, and challenges, and offer advice to new education entrepreneurs. Mercedes runs Path of Life Learning in Yorktown, VA, and Isis runs A Home for School in Moncks Corner, SC. Both founders participated in the spring 202...

As education across the US transforms from a centralized, top-down system to a diverse, decentralized marketplace responsive to the needs and preferences of learners and families, it can create some challenges for the entrepreneurial parents and teachers who are creating these new, bottom-up education solutions. Joining me on the podcast today is Mike Donnelly, an experienced attorney and vice pre...

I recently spent time in the greater Kansas City area visiting microschools and learning pods, and talking to founders, and was struck by what I found. All seven of the learning environments I visited were founded within the past three years and all of the founders are former public school teachers who quit and created these alternative programs. They also all expressed greater levels of personal...

Alexi Burgess is the co-founder of Alcove Learning , a self-directed learning center for teens and tweens in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Alcove opened in January 2020 as part of the Liberated Learners network of self-directed learning centers across the U.S.  In Los Angeles, A Tiny School Lets Young People Direct Their Own Education (The74) *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly e...

A common question about unconventional educational models, and especially about self-directed ones that put young people in charge of their own education, is how do kids turn out? To help answer that question I've invited Evan Hughes, who attended the renowned Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, MA for his childhood and adolescence, and now sends his son there as well.  Sudbury Valley was founded...

Frank Farro is the cofounder, along with his wife Natalie, of Acton Academy North Broward , in Coral Springs, Florida, which they launched in 2020. Acton Academy is of course the popular, fast-growing global network of learner-driven microschools, now encompassing more than 300 independently owned and operated Acton-affiliated schools. I've had the privilege of highlighting several affiliated Acto...