Micro schools continue to pop up in Nebraska. Are they legit?

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A new style of home schooling became more popular during the pandemic, but it may make it harder for students to get into college.

Micro schools emerged as families and educators fed up with COVID-19 restrictions looked for alternative forms of education.

Sometimes called learning pods, micro schools are small groups of kids that come together with guidance from adults in a home-school style of learning.

Acton Academy Lincoln is one K-12 micro school that started about 2½ years ago. They began the school year on Monday with 73 learners.

Zach Harsin, the head of the academy, says that the children are the drivers of their own education and that the teachers, or “Socratic guides,” as they call them, take a back seat to let kids lead the way.

“We believe that if we can help the entire human develop from leadership to character development to the choices they’re making on a daily basis, to the interpersonal skills that they’re working on and developing every single day,” he said, “we believe that the academics will simply come along for the ride.”

Harsin said the curriculum is more focused on these skills rather than traditional subjects like math or reading. The teachers do still cover these topics, or what they call “core skills,” through computerized, game-based software.

But parents will want to be careful if they are seeking out a school that is unapproved or unaccredited by the state.

On Monday, Nebraska State Board of Education member Deborah Neary posted on social media that she’s been called by a number of families who learned that some colleges won’t accept credits from schools that weren’t accredited by the state.

Harsin explained that since Acton Academy doesn’t meet the criteria for accreditation, the content it teaches is therefore not regulated by the state, either, which is the whole point of micro schools.

“We’re actually mastery based; we’re not grade based,” he said. “So we take that work that they’ve completed, and we can create a traditional transcript that they can use to then go on to a four-year university. Yes, it’s not state accredited, but nothing that is done through home school is state accredited.”

While some colleges don’t accept students or credits from unaccredited institutions, Harsin said the kids at Acton Academy have just as much, if not more, opportunities in life.

He says the school helps them to find paid internships and apprenticeships while still in school and prepares them for life better than a traditional public school.

The charitable program National School Choice Week has a list of requirements to keep in mind if you’re looking to put together your own micro school or enroll your kids in one that already exists.

It includes how to formally withdraw kids from public school, so they’re not marked truant, which subjects need to be included and other helpful resources.