For decades, education reformers have described a “perfect” world where students are able to receive a strong academic experience that is personalized specifically for each person in an environment that allows for each student to reach their full potential. In this world, all learning experiences, whether they happen inside or outside the classroom, are counted and included in the measures of student proficiency. Students progress at the pace most appropriate to them and have exposure to careers in which they have interest and aptitude.

Far from being a dream, there are many of these schools that exist today and have been profiled in almost every education-focused publication and in other media outlets. One example of this is the Nature’s Gift charter microschool, part of the Indiana Microschool Collaborative located in rural Hancock County in Indiana. Nature’s Gift was designed from the ground up to be a next generation school. The school, the first of what will be a network of microschools around the State of Indiana, is multi-age, hands on, and fully competency based. Founded by George Philhower, who is also the current Superintendent of Eastern Hancock Schools, the overriding mission of the Collaborative is to create a school where each student feels like it was designed specifically for them. 

The Nature’s Gift school, with 62 students ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade, is located in a campground, taking advantage of buildings that are empty during the school week. Two teachers and four “guides” support students by crafting individualized learning plans that take maximum advantage of the multi-age environment. Next year the Collaborative will launch more sites, including a micro high school focused on apprenticeships in partnership with local businesses. 

This is just one example of what is possible in terms of coming close to the long imagined perfect world. There are hundreds of other schools across the country that provide similar experiences. Nature’s Gift is unique in that it is public, is part of what will eventually become a network of public microschools, and has a strong connection to the local school district and community. This creates potential for overcoming the primary shortcoming of unique school models, which is that they are not scalable.

If we are going to truly move to a new horizon of education, we have to move to a world where unique educational experiences are the norm, not just examples that are on the reform movement tour guide map. To get there, we must start with examining state level policies that reinforce the status quo. Over the years, well intentioned policies have been passed within every state that are designed specifically to make the traditional school model the best it can be. The problem is those policies put innovative school models in a position of having to “hack” the systems to do what they feel is best for the students in their schools. One of two things happens as a result – either the school stays true to its vision but cannot scale, or the school grows but compromises the vision to better adapt to the policies.

In Indiana, we have been working on state policy to encourage innovation that can scale to serve all 100,000 plus students in the state. We streamlined all of our grade level and content standards, focusing on those that have a high impact on student outcomes. In other words, we asked “what are the most important things at this grade level or in this course that predict success at the next level”. This has allowed our teachers to dive deeper, with more rigor, into content that matters. In addition, it also allows teachers to focus on those “durable skills” that lead to students being ready for life after school, which heretofore had been impossible because teachers were sprinting just to give minimal coverage to hundreds of content standards.

Based on feedback from teachers, we changed our assessments from a single end of year test to a series of through year assessments with results delivered in time for instruction to be adapted to each student. Our high school diploma was redesigned and implemented to provide maximum flexibility for students while also providing clear steps for students, no matter which pathway they choose to follow after high school. Because of that clarity, Indiana’s universities and businesses have fully endorsed the diploma and its accompanying seals (Indiana Governor Announces Direct Pathways), providing students with direct access to future possibilities. And our new accountability system provides alignment with all of the above and incentivises schools to maximize each student’s outcome. 

Now the challenge in front of us is to take full advantage of these policy changes and move aggressively forward with examples like the Collaborative. We believe that in a few short years, we will have thousands of students in education settings like the initial Nature’s Gift microschool. A local philanthropy has a goal of seeing 50,000 Indiana students have an apprenticeship experience within the next 10 years, and the industry-focused micro high school will play a huge role in that.

It will take intentionality on the part of all parties to get to this point. Legislators and state boards of education, along with the state departments of education, must keep their eye on the north star of eliminating barriers to innovation. Local school boards and district superintendents must be willing to take some risks (responsibly) and either create next-horizon schools themselves or partner with those who are doing it.

The final message is that we do not need to invent the next horizon of schools. They exist all across the country and are thriving. With the right investments in policy and infrastructure we can greatly expand the existing innovative and successful models and begin the transition of traditional schools into the next horizon.