Personalized Learning Grows Through Colorado’s Microschools

By Ellie Carson | Complete Colorado

With the Colorado school year quickly approaching, microschools present a promising revitalization of the one-room schoolhouse.

Microschools are small learning communities typically serving less than 50 students, but which may have as many as 150. These schools are usually privately funded and launched by parents or educators to offer unique programs that address a specific need or demand in their communities. Low student-to-teacher ratios prioritize giving individual attention to each student.

It is difficult to identify all microschools in Colorado due to their unconventional size. Estimates suggest there may be between 100-120 schools currently operating. One example is Highlands Micro School, which operates out of an old residence in Northwest Denver and caps its enrollment at 26 students across grades K-5. The school takes pride in its mixed-aged classrooms and in developing individual learning goals for each child.

Schools like Highlands Micro School exemplify promising educational innovation that is worth expanding in Colorado. Greater awareness of the advantages to microschools could spark an innovation movement across the state.

Innovation and educational choice

According to research by Sarah Ohls, Lauren Covelli, and Jonathan Schweig, published by RAND, microschools around the nation “began to emerge as families and educators, dissatisfied with local schooling options, began to seek alternatives to traditional public schools.”

Driven by a desire for change, most microschools do not adhere to the standard educational model. It is most common for microschools to feature mixed-age groups that reject traditional grade levels by adopting a student-driven curriculum and a highly personalized education model. Microschools encompass a diverse range of learning frameworks, including Montessori, Waldorf, classical education, outdoor learning, project- based learning, and styles tailored for individuals with learning disabilities.

Mircoschools often provide flexible schedules to accommodate family needs, and some operate as homeschool programs, where students attend only a few days a week. There is a growing number of Colorado public charter microschools and one school district offers its own small learning community.

By providing a wide range of educational philosophies and schedules, microschools can cater to the needs of children with diverse learning styles or those who have struggled in traditional learning settings. Additionally, teachers are empowered to pursue a career in a school that aligns with their educational philosophy.

Positive results

In the National Microschooling Center’s 2025 Sector Analysis, Don and Ashley Soifer report, “The main motivation most frequently cited by prelaunch microschool founders … was to enable children to thrive as they had not in prior settings (67 percent).”

To be sure, many microschools reject standardized testing and grade-level standards, making it challenging to acquire comprehensive data about educational outcomes. Nevertheless, some studies and questionnaires have revealed that individual learning guidance yields positive results. According to the Soifers, microschools report that 81 percent of their students achieved one to two years of growth in one academic year, while 17 percent achieved between two and three years of growth.

Microschool educators express that teaching in a microschool gave them fulfillment that they had not found in the traditional school system. According to Kerry McDonald, an education contributor at Forbes, teaching at a microschool offers a “freer, more flexible education” and curriculum flexibility. The small class size allows teachers to harness their mentoring skills while maintaining high parental involvement.

Moreover, the community environment provides students with the opportunity to build strong social and emotional skills; and families have the potential to foster lasting relationships.

Cost effectiveness

According to the latest available data, the Colorado Department of Education, when considering all revenue sources in 2022-2023, the average expenditure per Colorado public school student was $18,895. Private School Review reports the average private school tuition in Colorado in 2025 was $14,493. By contrast, according to Soifer and Soifer, the national median cost to educate one child in a microschool was $8,124. Among currently operating microschools, 26% charge tuition of $5,000 or less, while 48% charge tuition between $5,001 and $10,000. Additionally, 65% of microschools offer some form of tuition discount.

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