Individualized attention and smaller class sizes are a draw for parents looking for specialized lessons for their children
PORT HURON — Stephanie Weaver has a simple phrase to sum up her school.
Small, but mighty.
Weaver is the principal of St. Mary/McCormick Catholic Academy in Port Huron, a Pre-K-8 school with 75 students and an average class size of around 10.
Enrollment under 100 for a Pre-K-8 school might sound alarm bells for the principal of a more “traditional” school model, but St. Mary/McCormick Catholic Academy operates under the "microschool" model, Weaver said, where multi-age classrooms and personalized learning plans are part of the appeal.
“So the simple explanation is just we’re smaller than our neighboring schools, but that just allows us to provide more individualized instruction to all our students,” Weaver told Detroit Catholic. “The phrase we like to use is we are small but mighty.”
St. Mary/McCormick and other microschools operate using a multi-age model, in which students of different ages are given material based on their aptitude in math and reading, as opposed to students being taught as a single, age-based cohort.
Having students of different grade levels share the same classroom isn’t necessarily new. For years, St. Mary/McCormick had multi-grade classrooms in which second and third graders might share a room and then break off into separate groups.
But multi-age classrooms take it a step further, with students of the same age given learning material based on their own individual aptitude in a given subject.
“Multi-age classrooms allow the kids to interact in different ways and sets them up for the real world, because life doesn’t group people just by their age level,” Weaver said. “Multi-age classrooms better reflect college or careers, or even what you might find in sports and other clubs. It allows for individualized learning with small class sizes. Our teachers meet students where they are and challenge them to grow.”
In the microschool model, schools can adjust the number and size of classes on a year-to-year basis, and teachers themselves aren't tied down to a specific grade.
Holy Cross School in Marine City has 111 students in its Pre-K-8 school. Each year, the school evaluates the comprehension level of each student in math and reading before assigning them to the proper room for the given subject. That means the number of classrooms in use, and the amount of grades in each classroom, varies year to year.
“Everybody gets just what they need in terms of instruction because the students can be placed in the proper group given their level,” said Betsy Davenport, principal at Holy Cross School. “Just like in a group classroom — say a fifth-grade classroom — where you’re going to have multiple different reading levels, you’re going to have students who are on grade level, some who are below grade level, and some who are above grade level, so you assign the reading group in each room based on the level of the student.”
While multi-grade classes have different grades in the same room, sharing a teacher but working on different material, multi-age learning recognizes that some students learn different subjects at different pace than other subjects, so the students' learning program is linked to their proficiency in each subject and not their age, Davenport said.
When Holy Cross switched to the multi-age model, it communicated to parents the benefits the change would create for students.
“I think at first, sometimes parents can be hesitant because the traditional form of education has us doing split classes or combined classes,” Davenport said. “But once they see their children are getting a truly personalized individualized education, they see the benefits. They see their kids having those ‘aha’ moments, and they see the growth they’re experiencing. Their kids are no longer in that constant state of frustration, but their confidence grows and their performance, in turn, is better as well.”
The microschool model requires a “shift in mindset” for school leadership, Davenport added, particularly in more rural areas of the Archdiocese of Detroit, such as Marine City.
“We’re limited in terms of population because we’re not exactly the most accessible place to get to,” Davenport said. “But being in a microschool model takes that pressure off of constantly saying, ‘We need our enrollment to be over 200 children so we can be sustainable.’ There’s a really good way to be sustainable by embracing the fact that you’re a microschool, knowing that and using that as a strength, which is how well we get to know our kids and our families and their needs.”
The microschool model does mean more work for teachers in planning individual lesson plans for each student, Weaver acknowledged.
“To prepare math lessons for every single child, it takes a lot more work, and so we’ve come up with other ways that the teachers can have additional prep time by providing additional library time to our students,” Weaver said. “Teachers can have that dedicated block of time to actually plan out lessons for every child.”
Weaver adds her staff has reported greater satisfaction at work, as they are able to see their students’ progress up close.
“They’re getting to know the child a little bit better because they’re having that more personal interaction, either one-on-one or in a small group, rather than trying to teach a whole group,” Weaver said.
The model also allows the school to promote academic excellence by setting higher expectations for students who can be challenged more, Weaver added.
Having students of different ages in the same classroom also builds interpersonal skills, with students more advanced in instruction seizing opportunities to become leaders in the classroom and help their peers.
“Older students in the class naturally develop the confidence and leadership skills by mentoring their younger classmates,” Weaver said. “Children learn from each other in different ways than they might learn from a teacher. It also gives the students a stronger sense of community, so multi-age classrooms feel a little bit more like a family where students build those long-lasting relationships and learn respect, patience and collaboration.”
A big benefit is that St. Mary/McCormick students no longer compare themselves to their classmates, Weaver said, but rather focus on their own academic progress.
“This system has reduced academic pressure,” Weaver said. “When you have kids in just one grade level together, they start comparing themselves to how their peers are doing. But if everyone is at a different level, students don’t have that constant comparison, and they can focus more on their own and less on the competition.”
