Olivia Sumner’s glass-walled classroom inside the Learning Lab space in downtown Wichita is an experiment in learning — a K-6 microschool developed and operated by Wichita public schools.
Last summer, the district reached out to several families who had planned to pull their kids out of Wichita schools. Some were headed to private or religious schools, others to homeschool.
They changed their minds and instead enrolled at Creative Minds Academy.
“We know that a traditional classroom is not the best environment for every student,” said Rob Dickson, Wichita’s chief information officer, who helped launch Creative Minds.
“This is a way to think about a conversation back and forth with a family about: What needs do you have in educating your child?”
This fall, Creative Minds will more than double its enrollment, with two full-time teachers in two classrooms. It’s also gaining national attention from microschool advocates and other school districts.
“These are really innovative practices happening in teaching and learning that are community-rooted and community-driven,” said Don Soifer, president of the Las Vegas-based National Microschooling Center.
“What you’ve got there (in Wichita) is a real gem … and I think that that is going to have resonance nationally as it gains more attention.”
The COVID-19 pandemic boosted the microschool movement across the country, as families sought alternatives during shutdowns and remote schooling. The trend has continued post-pandemic, as part of a broader desire for educational choice.
According to a recent analysis by the National Microschooling Center, microschools now serve an estimated 2% of the U.S. student population, or about 750,000 students. And increasingly, families don’t even have to leave their public school to join the movement.
Wichita pays Learning Lab $6,000 a year to rent space inside the converted Union Station building, where students have access to a podcast studio, maker space, print lab and several common areas. They’re also within walking distance of downtown parks, museums and businesses.
The district does not provide transportation to the microschool, but this year it will begin serving breakfast and lunch to students.
Sumner, the Creative Minds teacher, said a typical day at the school doesn’t look like your average classroom. Art, music and physical activity are incorporated into daily routines, and students collaborate on projects.
“The students could choose to write a song, or produce a podcast, or maybe they’re going to do interpretive dance to show their learning and write a caption about it afterwards,” she said.
When they do split up for math or reading lessons, groups are divided based on skill, not grade levels.
“I have a kindergartner working at the end of first grade, I have a fourth-grader that’s working on some second-grade work before he hops back up, and anything in between,” Sumner said. “So wherever the student is at, they are not limited either direction.”
She said the atmosphere is more like a homeschool than a traditional classroom.
“They have actually started calling themselves siblings. They say they don’t feel like friends, they feel like siblings,” she said.
“Because that’s what it feels like when you’ve got that many different ages in one space. It does feel like it’s navigating a family more than a classroom.”
Lydia Hampton is managing director of the Learning Lab, which opened two years ago inside Wichita’s Union Station. The site now houses public and private microschools, as well as homeschool co-ops and the first expansion of the Khan Lab School outside of California.
Hampton said Wichita’s microschool experiment shows what can happen when public schools respond to parent demand.
“It’s a little bit of creative destruction in action,” Hampton said. “They recognize that our society is changing, that parents and families want something different. And they could have either stepped out and said, ‘Nope.’ Or they could lean into the discomfort and do something about it.”
Microschools are still rare but are gaining traction in Kansas. Many include a religious component, such as the Green Gate Children’s School in Wichita and the Re*Wild Family Academy outside Hutchinson. Others, like Wichita's Wild Flower Community School, emphasize time spent in nature.
Hampton said most microschools are developed by former or current educators frustrated with traditional schooling.
“We’ve got to do something different, or it’s just going to keep crumbling beneath our feet,” she said.
Jasmine Henry enrolled her third-grade daughter, Jazelle, in the Creative Minds microschool as soon as she learned about it last fall. This fall, she’ll return to the school as a fourth-grader.
As a public school teacher herself, Henry said she was impressed by the program’s flexibility.
“It just seemed like it was more creative, and she was going to have more choice on what she wants to do,” Henry said. “It got away from spending so much time on things she already knows, and she’s just able to have a little bit more freedom.”
Wichita Superintendent Kelly Bielefeld worked behind the scenes last fall to launch Creative Minds, which he calls a “vertical school” concept. His latest contract with the district includes a new agreement that the concept is Bielefeld’s intellectual property.
During an update for the school board in April, Bielefeld said public schools need to try new approaches to stay relevant.
“Some parents want flexibility and space. Some parents want … the hands-on environment. It can be challenging to do in a regular classroom,” he said.
“My hope would be that we’re always looking to the future, to see: What do kids and families want and desire? And making sure we are that opportunity for those families.”
