Education was changing before the pandemic. Homeschooling was already increasing. The growth of school choice programs was helping to spur options like microschools and schools founded by teachers. And online charter schools were offering families a tuition-free way to access a full-time school from home.

These existing innovations helped smooth the educational impact of COVID-19 for many people. And they helped jumpstart new entrants into the education space. The Wayside School, based in Philadelphia, is a good example of this.

Andrew Brummett is the founder of The Wayside School. He started developing a hybrid high school at a church in Philadelphia before the pandemic—he’d designed the school and curriculum, hosted open houses, and recruited several families. When schools were shuttered in March 2020, he realized his curriculum and school design would work well as an online option.

The Wayside School model uses learning cohorts that essentially operate as microschools. Each cohort can decide for itself how often to meet in person. The curriculum is delivered online, and the in-person gatherings give students time for discussions, group projects, and socializing.

While The Wayside School is a low-cost option, it also has the benefit of enabling parents, churches, or other community members to earn money by leading learning cohorts.

Andrew is thrilled with the progress he’s seeing in his students. “At Atonement Academy, the first example of the Wayside School model, the most inspiring thing has been the growth we have seen in the students by raising expectations and treating them as the young adults they are,” he says. “The micro high school model fosters leadership opportunity because all the students work together to accomplish major projects, such as our ‘Selections from Shakespeare,’ in which the whole school became a Shakespearean theatre troupe, the President’s Men.”

Atonement Academy opened in Philadelphia in Fall 2020, and a second campus is expected to open in Fall 2022 in Scranton, PA. A third campus is being planned for Fall 2023 in Austin. Andrew and his team are also working on “Wayside STEM,” which will offer science courses, enrichment, and tutoring for students searching for better STEM learning opportunities.

We know one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to education. Options like The Wayside School are enabling more kids to live out that reality by providing access to flexible education models that work for them.