LiberatED Podcast

Jen Granberry is the founder of ARROWS Christian Academy in Phoenix, Arizona that she launched in August 2023. ARROWS is fully-integrated K-8 private school blending neurotypical and neurodiverse students with a focus on individualized learning, meeting each child where they are at academically and developmentally. She currently has 23 students enrolled with 3 teachers and 3 aides with plans for i...

Justine Wilson is the founder of Curious and Kind Education . She has been an educator for 18 years working in a variety of roles including outdoor science educator, public school teacher, and university instructor doing teacher-training. She launched the nature-based Curious & Kind in 2023 as part of the Agile Learning Centers (ALC) Network that prioritizes self-directed education.   *** Sign up...

Thomas Arnett is a senior research fellow in education at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation. He is the author of a new paper on why parents choose microschools, entitled: Families on the New Frontier: Mapping and Meeting the Growing Demand for Unconventional Schooling . *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

The Sanctuary Academy on the north side of Chicago is a Catholic microschool focused on learner-driven education enabling each child to follow his or her own unique path. It is part of the global Acton Academy network of hundreds of learner-driven microschools serving thousands of learners. The Sanctuary Academy is the first intentionally Catholic version of the Acton model. It was cofounded in 20...

The Cherry Hill School in El Paso, Texas is a Reggio Emilia-inspired, project-based 1st through 5th Jewish microschool that was founded in 2020. Joining me today to talk more about Cherry Hill and its learner-centered educational philosophy is Meg Birk, Head of School Curriculum at The Cherry Hill School. Prior to joining Cherry Hill, Meg spent 36 years as a public school educator in the El Paso S...

Rida Rizvi is a cofounder of Al Hadi Learning Organization , a Muslim microschool in the Washington, DC area that sprouted in 2017 as an off-shoot of a mommy-and-me class. It currently operates as a learner-centered preschool and early-elementary microschool. Rida is now creating a new organization called Azeez Academy for upper-elementary students. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsl...

Todd Hepworth is the co-founder of Orchard STEM School , a K-8 microschool located in a working orchard in his rural community of Santaquin, Utah that is scheduled to open this August. Todd worked as a public school teacher for more than a decade, as well as an administrator at a Waldorf-inspired charter school, before becoming an education entrepreneur. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email...

Alexis and JT Rubatzky are the founders of Triumph: An Acton Academy  in Cleveland, Tennessee, just outside of Chattanooga. Triumph is a home-based microschool for homeschoolers that opened in August 2023 and is part of the Acton Academy network of hundreds of learner-driven microschools.  *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

Rachel Good is the founder of Discovery Learners' Academy (DLA), a microschool that opened in Chattanooga, Tennessee in fall 2022. Rachel worked for more than 8 years as a public school teacher in Washington and Tennessee before launching DLA as a state-recognized PreK-12 private school with a personalized educational approach. It opened with 21 learners and today has 50—about 15 of whom attend pa...

Iman Alleyne is the founder of Kind Academy and creator of Launch Your Kind , an accelerator program for those interested in opening their own microschools! *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

Kaity Broadbent is the Chief Empowerment Advocate at Prenda , the national network that has helped to launch hundreds of microschools serving thousands of learners since 2018. A homeschooling mom, Kaity is a thoughtful and insightful voice on the topic of personalized learning and alternative education models. Prior to Prenda, Kaity was a Speech-Language Pathologist in public schools, literacy coa...

Denise Lever was a firefighter turned homeschooling mom who launched a Prenda microschool in August 2020 in the rural town of Eager, Arizona in Apache County, which is one of the poorest counties in the US and one of only 3 counties in the entire country where neither English nor Spanish is the primary language spoke at home. In Apache County, that language is Navajo. Denise is also an administrat...

When Shari Robinson's oldest son wasn't thriving in public school, she pulled him out for homeschooling and then began homeschooling her other children as well. It was her personal experience of homeschooling her own children that inspired Shari over the years to create various STEM activities for local homeschoolers, including continuing to lead one of the highest-ranked robotics teams in the sta...

Eric Oglesbee is a school founder turned funder. He helped to launch River Montessori High School in South Bend, Indiana that is currently the only high school in the expanding Wildflower Montessori microschool network. After his experience as a founder, Eric joined  The Drexel Fund in 2022. The Drexel Fund is a nonprofit philanthropic fund that provides seed and next-stage funding to high-quality...

Imani Jackson is an experienced educator currently working as an elementary school teacher in a traditional private school who is launching Poinciana Montessori in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia this fall as part of the fast-growing  Wildflower Montessori microschool network.  *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

My guest today is Eric Wearne, Associate Professor at the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and Director of the National Hybrid Schools Project . He is also the author of the 2020 book, Defining Hybrid Homeschools in America: Little Platoons .  Eric was previously on the podcast in the spring of 2022 ahead of his inaugural Hybrid Schools Conference. That event was...

Angel Sobrino is the founder and director of learning of The Hive Interactive , a   homeschooling program and learning platform that embraces passion-driven, self-directed learning, empowering young people to chart their own unique pathways toward adulthood.   *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

I first met Marissa Hess back in 2022 at the inaugural National Hybrid Schools Conference in Atlanta. She is a former public school teacher and Montessori teacher who was homeschooled for most of her childhood and ultimately returned to the homeschooling model as the founder of Urban Cottage Educational Collaborative in Tampa, Florida that currently serves 84 mixed-age learners with 10 teachers. *...

Angie Wakeman and Rebecca Foley are the founders of Providence Hybrid Academy , a faith-based, Charlotte Mason-inspired hybrid homeschool program in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, a little over an hour outside of Philadelphia. They launched their program as a small co-op in 2016 and today have 145 students in grades K-9, with 15 teachers, 7 aids and administrative staff, and a long waitli...

Gisela Quinones is a homeschooling mother of three children who lives just outside of Chicago. She is the founder of LatinosHomeschooling.org , providing resources, support, classes, and community for Latino homeschooling families across the U.S. *** Sign up for Kerry's free, weekly email newsletter on education trends at fee.org/liberated .

Entrepreneurship is challenging, but cultivating a community of education entrepreneurs can make the experience more personally and professionally rewarding. In this episode, education entrepreneurs Shiren Rattigan of Colossal Academy and Toni Frallicciardi of Surf Skate Science discuss why they teamed up to create the Innovative Educators Network to collaborate with local founders—and why they re...

Melissé Segesman is the homeschool director and a teacher at Montessori Peaks Academy , a tuition-free homeschool enrichment program run through the Jefferson County public school district in Colorado. Melissé has a Bachelor's degree in elementary education and a Montessori certificate, and she has been serving the Montessori Peaks Homeschool Community since 2014.  Montessori Peaks Academy is a un...

Once a booming area buoyed by the automotive industry, Highland Park, a city just outside of Detroit, has faced decades of blight. In 2011, the city repossessed more than two-thirds of Highland Park's residential streetlights due to outstanding electric bills. The streetlights were removed, literally leaving residents in the dark. It was around this time that a visionary woman known to everyone as...

The Sudbury Valley School is a self-directed, democratic school located in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1968 and has inspired the growth of dozens of Sudbury-model schools around the world over the past half-century. The Sudbury model is based on the belief that children learn best when they have the freedom to explore their interests and take responsibility for their own education...

Ian Lindsey is the cofounder, along with his wife Stephanie, of Acton Academy St. George in St. George, Utah. It is part of the fast-growing Acton Academy network of learner-driven microschools that includes more than 300 independently owned and operated schools, serving thousands of learners. Ian and Stephanie launched their microschool in fall 2020 with 12 students in their home. They grew to 22...