By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline.org

When Siri Fiske founded the Mysa Microschool in Washington, D.C., in 2016, there wasn’t a widely accepted term for her small, one-room schoolhouse model.

Now, the school is referred to on its website as one of the first microschools in the nation, and Fiske has seen a growing microschool movement since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the five years since remote schooling amid pandemic-era lockdowns, microschools and homeschooling have emerged as increasingly popular alternatives to traditional public and private models. Smaller class sizes, individualized classrooms and lack of standardization are an appeal to parents, Fiske said.

“There’s this idea that people who open microschools are doing it for cultish or religious reasons, and there’s a misconception t

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