{"id":1545790,"date":"2025-07-08T02:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T06:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1545790"},"modified":"2025-07-08T02:35:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T06:35:00","slug":"how-new-microschool-accreditation-pathways-are-opening-doors-for-founders-and-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-new-microschool-accreditation-pathways-are-opening-doors-for-founders-and-families\/1545790\/","title":{"rendered":"How New Microschool Accreditation Pathways Are Opening Doors For Founders and Families"},"content":{"rendered":"

How New Microschool Accreditation Pathways Are Opening Doors For Founders and Families<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Kerry McDonald via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

As a mother of nine in Tennessee, Sarah Fagerburg tried a variety of different schooling types, from public schools to homeschooling, but she always felt there had to be something better. In the spring of 2023, she discovered\u00a0Acton Academy<\/a>\u00a0from listening to a podcast,<\/strong> and knew that this was the educational model she had been seeking.<\/p>\n

MCP Academy in Mansfield, Texas\/FEE<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mind was blown,\u201d said Fagerburg. \u201cI had no idea education could be this good.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

She applied to open her own Acton Academy, and was accepted into the fast-growing network of approximately 300 independently operated schools, emphasizing learner-driven education<\/strong>. Fagerburg launched Acton Academy Johnson City<\/a>\u00a0last fall with 13 students, including four of her own children. Today, she has 26 K-6 students enrolled in her secular microschool, with plans to add a middle school and high school program in the coming years. \u201cParents want this. They love it<\/strong>,\u201d said Fagerburg, adding that some families drive up to 45 minutes each way for their children to attend her program.<\/p>\n

She says she sees enormous demand for the Acton Academy model, and hopes to open more locations in Tennessee, but access is a key concern. \u201cI grew up poor,\u201d said Fagerburg. \u201cI never would have been able to attend a school like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the current expansion of school choice programs, such as Tennessee\u2019s new universal education savings accounts (ESA), many more families are able to access innovative schools and learning models<\/strong>. \u201cIt\u2019s a complete game changer,\u201d said Fagerburg, explaining how the ESA program enables Tennessee families who previously had limited education choices to now use a portion of state-allocated education funding to select the school or learning space that is best for their child.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a catch. In order to participate in Tennessee\u2019s ESA program, Fagerburg\u2019s school must be accredited<\/strong>, and its current accreditation by the\u00a0International Association of Learner Driven Schools<\/a>\u00a0isn\u2019t recognized by the state.<\/p>\n

That is why Fagerburg jumped at the opportunity to participate in a fledgling program offered through the\u00a0Middle States Association<\/a>\u00a0(MSA), one of the four major K-12 accreditation entities, with 3,200 member schools worldwide. In\u00a0partnership<\/a>\u00a0with Stand Together Trust, MSA\u2019s Next Generation Accreditation pilot program seeks to offer a faster, more affordable, and more flexible route toward accreditation for today\u2019s emerging schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created this flexible protocol around how a school actually works,\u201d said Christian Talbot, President and CEO of MSA. \u201cThat gives mostly microschools, but really any innovative school, the opportunity to tell their story with the production of evidence that makes the most sense to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talbot offered the example of a hypothetical urban \u201cplace-based\u201d learning environment, with no designated school building and students taking classes at various museums, public parks, and historic sites throughout a city. \u201cThat school is going to have the opportunity to describe the learning environment in ways that existing accreditation protocols really don\u2019t allow because you have to have a certificate of occupancy, or a lease, or some other thing that is tied to this mental model we have that school has to be in a building,\u201d said Talbot.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that these innovative schools are \u201cmeeting all of the exact same standards of accreditation\u201d as conventional schools, but they are able to demonstrate these standards in ways that reflect the ingenuity of their models.<\/strong><\/p>\n

MSA is the world\u2019s second-oldest accrediting agency. It launched more than a century ago, as interest grew from schools and colleges for independent, third-party verifiers of quality. For higher education, accreditation eventually became a requirement for US colleges and universities to participate in federal student financial aid programs, but at the K-12 level, mandatory accreditation is less common.<\/p>\n

Most states don\u2019t require schools\u2014public or private\u2014to be accredited, but some schools choose to become accredited to earn an external \u201cseal of approval,\u201d which may help them to attract and retain students and educators. With the expansion of school-choice programs nationwide in recent years, certain states, such as Tennessee and Texas, require accreditation in order for a school to participate in these programs.<\/p>\n

Cammy Herrera had been exploring the possibility of accreditation for her secular microschool\u00a0MCP Academy<\/a>, in Mansfield, Texas, well before the state introduced a new universal school-choice program this spring. A former public school teacher, Herrera had been running a licensed in-home preschool for more than a decade when she decided in 2021 to add a Montessori-inspired school-age program. She now serves over 50 students through middle school, with plans to open a high school if she can find a larger space to accommodate more students.<\/p>\n

For Herrera, accreditation was appealing as a signal of quality, but she felt that most existing accrediting organizations took a traditional view of education that didn\u2019t reflect her personalized, flexible approach.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur school is so different. We are not trying to fit into a one-size-fits-all box when it comes to schooling,\u201d said Herrera, whose students are technically considered homeschoolers. They can attend her school full-time at an annual tuition of $10,250, or customize their enrollment based on their own learning needs. Tuition for Herrera\u2019s two-day-a-week option is about $4,000 annually. \u201cWhoever we get accredited through has to believe in our vision and has to be on board with what makes our school special because we don\u2019t want our school to lose that special part that makes us different from a traditional school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When Herrera learned about the MSA\u2019s pilot accreditation program for microschools, she eagerly applied. Next Generation Accreditation would offer Herrera that third-party validation she has been seeking while retaining her program\u2019s originality. It would also enable her to participate in Texas\u2019s new school choice program, should she choose.<\/p>\n

MSA hopes to run the Next Generation Accreditation pilot with 10 to 15 innovative schools over the next several months to learn more about these schools\u2019 distinct needs and structures, and then iterate and adapt protocols to provide a valuable accreditation pathway for today\u2019s creative schooling models.<\/p>\n

As the creator of the\u00a0Texas Microschools<\/a>\u00a0Facebook group, Herrera sees mounting interest in microschooling and the diverse educational models and methods that the movement fosters<\/strong>. She thinks that accreditation options that reflect this diversity can be beneficial to founders and families who value that credential, or who need it to participate in certain school-choice programs. But she also warns of potential drawbacks: \u201cThere are all these special schools, and if everybody has to follow the same standards to be accredited, then I think they\u2019ll be more alike than different. That\u2019s the only thing I could see being a downfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published on The74<\/a>, reposted from the Foundation for Economic Education<\/a> (FEE)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 07\/07\/2025 – 22:35<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/how-new-microschool-accreditation-pathways-are-opening-doors-founders-and-families<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How New Microschool Accreditation Pathways Are Opening Doors For Founders and Families Authored by Kerry McDonald via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), As a mother…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1545791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1545790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1545790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1545791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1545790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1545790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1545790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}