Clonlara School’s Director of Education April Huard recently sat on a panel at the fourth annual Emerging School Models conference at the Harvard Kennedy School. This national conference brought together leaders in education to discuss innovative school models and their sustainability and scalability.
The panelists were all in agreement: Yes, hybrid learning is the future.
“The data shows that it’s popular, people want it, they like it,” Huard said. Enrollment at Clonlara’s Ann Arbor campus has risen by 25% since the introduction of flexible three- and five-day options, she shared.
Huard has noticed several main groups drawn to hybrid learning:
Homeschoolers looking for in-person community
Families with flexible work schedules
Students with school trauma
Students who are involved in music, athletics, or other passions at a very high level
Families who travel
“Hybrid learning is just the better default,” McGrath said. “I think it emphasizes the unencumbering of humans to have more control of their time to be able to focus on the things that matter, which is really allowing the students to have flexibility and respect of their own time.”
“I would say the hybrid model is directly aligned to what [teenagers] want,” Spengler noted. “They want to be independent. They want to make choices. They don’t want to be hovered over by another adult . . . They want to pursue something and not be bound to it for eight months, or a year, or two years—and they want to be able to change.”
Teens want to be able to move at their own pace, Spengler added; they don’t want to feel like they’re being held back by others in the classroom, and they also don’t want to feel afraid to ask questions because everyone else is ahead. “It just seems like . . . the hybrid approach is directly aligned with where they are as people,” he concluded.
Hybrid Learning Means Rethinking Everything
“We use these words like ‘hybrid’ and ‘blended,’ and you immediately go to the structure of that,” McGrath said. “And those are enablers, but it’s certainly ancillary.”
So what does hybrid learning enable, exactly?
According to the panelists, it lets us question just about everything traditional education takes for granted.
Rethinking When and Where Learning Happens
“Especially as a hybrid school, we’ve really learned to recognize an ecosystem of learning and give up the idea that learning only happens in our building during school hours,” Huard said. “We can think about all the experiences that kids have and really recognize the learning that happens all the time—whether we want to recognize it or not, it’s happening. Kids are learning all the time.”
Clonlara developed a tool called Full Circle Learning (FCL) to help recognize, encourage, and document the learning that happens in the student’s whole ecosystem, Huard shared.
Rethinking the Role of “Teacher”
“Teaching cannot look the same and you can’t be the guardian of information anymore,” McGrath said. “It’s more just allowing there to be adults that have the time and the acumen to figure out how to help students guide and navigate the complexities of what school looks like.”
At ASU Prep Tempe powered by The Levitt Lab, each student has a “guide” who helps them set their learning goals, rather than a traditional teacher. As long as students are meeting their goals, McGrath continued, they’re able to determine how they spend the rest of their time.
“It’s all about engagement and joy and wonder,” she continued. “[We’re] trying to get the students on these passion paths by giving them respect for time.”
Rethinking Students’ Role in Their Education
“Whenever you allow the kids to really drive some of the design of what their school day looks like, you get that buy in and you get a different level of engagement as opposed to this constant sort of authoritarian model,” McGrath shared. “But truly, the idea of having students in the driver’s seat is not new. It’s just how to deliver on it and how to expect adults to pivot and change when their kids are bored.”
Clonlara has been putting students in the driver’s seat since 1967. “Clonlara School was founded as a place where children were respected as people, where they had autonomy and agency over their learning, and parents were invited in to be a part of that learning journey for their kids,” Huard explained.
As part of this philosophy, Clonlara students learn to plan their own projects and design their own learning experiences, Huard said. Teachers support students in planning projects that are both authentic and meaningful.
Rethinking Evaluation
“Our main goal for students is to help them learn how to learn,” Huard shared. “And we also really value six competencies that we use for our assessment and evaluation. One of them is content, but we also want kids to develop communication, collaboration, creative thinking, critical thinking, and confidence.”
At ASU Prep Tempe, evaluation is a two-way street. “We survey the kids a lot . . . and they give us really authentic feedback,” McGrath said. Students are asked to evaluate their guides, who are assessed partially based on how engaged and happy their students are.
Two Successful Hybrid Models
So what does all this rethinking look like in practice? The panelists shared details on their hybrid school models.
At Clonlara’s Ann Arbor campus, the school day runs from 9 to 2 for most students, with optional early drop off and after school options. Students attend either three or five days per week. Students who attend three days (Tuesday through Thursday) homeschool on Mondays and Fridays.
“We really tried to unbundle the schedule of school so that people could build their ideal schedule for their own family and for their own students for whatever reason,” Huard said.
At ASU Prep Tempe, students meet on campus four days per week for seminars, projects, and collaboration. The fifth day is optional—students can use that time to learn from home, work on a project somewhere, interview a faculty member, or attend a lunch and learn, McGrath explained.
Students spend about two hours a day working on core learning, McGrath shared. They also have “Socratic seminar,” which cultivates respectful dialogue, and “wonder sessions,” which are an ungraded time to “get excited about topics that are of interest,” McGrath explained.
So yes: with these two strong examples and many more in the growing number of microschools and other innovative school models across the U.S., we think it’s safe to say the future IS hybrid. Education is not one-size-fits-all, and embracing creative ways of learning just makes sense.
Watch the full video of the panel for more, and let us know what you think in the comments below!
There are many ways to support Clonlara’s mission. Volunteer to share your time, knowledge, and experience; or donate and have a direct impact on our community.
Is Hybrid Learning the Future? Insights from a Harvard Education Conference
Clonlara School’s Director of Education April Huard recently sat on a panel at the fourth annual Emerging School Models conference at the Harvard Kennedy School. This national conference brought together leaders in education to discuss innovative school models and their sustainability and scalability.
Huard was joined by Amy McGrath, vice president at Arizona State University and CEO of ASU Preparatory and ASU Prep Global, and Matt Spengler, founder and executive director of BluePrint Schools Network, for a session on hybrid learning.
In “Blended by design: Is hybrid learning the future?,” the three panelists tackled the important question from the session’s title.
Hybrid Learning Is the Future
The panelists were all in agreement: Yes, hybrid learning is the future.
“The data shows that it’s popular, people want it, they like it,” Huard said. Enrollment at Clonlara’s Ann Arbor campus has risen by 25% since the introduction of flexible three- and five-day options, she shared.
Huard has noticed several main groups drawn to hybrid learning:
“Hybrid learning is just the better default,” McGrath said. “I think it emphasizes the unencumbering of humans to have more control of their time to be able to focus on the things that matter, which is really allowing the students to have flexibility and respect of their own time.”
“I would say the hybrid model is directly aligned to what [teenagers] want,” Spengler noted. “They want to be independent. They want to make choices. They don’t want to be hovered over by another adult . . . They want to pursue something and not be bound to it for eight months, or a year, or two years—and they want to be able to change.”
Teens want to be able to move at their own pace, Spengler added; they don’t want to feel like they’re being held back by others in the classroom, and they also don’t want to feel afraid to ask questions because everyone else is ahead. “It just seems like . . . the hybrid approach is directly aligned with where they are as people,” he concluded.
Hybrid Learning Means Rethinking Everything
“We use these words like ‘hybrid’ and ‘blended,’ and you immediately go to the structure of that,” McGrath said. “And those are enablers, but it’s certainly ancillary.”
So what does hybrid learning enable, exactly?
According to the panelists, it lets us question just about everything traditional education takes for granted.
Rethinking When and Where Learning Happens
“Especially as a hybrid school, we’ve really learned to recognize an ecosystem of learning and give up the idea that learning only happens in our building during school hours,” Huard said. “We can think about all the experiences that kids have and really recognize the learning that happens all the time—whether we want to recognize it or not, it’s happening. Kids are learning all the time.”
Clonlara developed a tool called Full Circle Learning (FCL) to help recognize, encourage, and document the learning that happens in the student’s whole ecosystem, Huard shared.
Rethinking the Role of “Teacher”
“Teaching cannot look the same and you can’t be the guardian of information anymore,” McGrath said. “It’s more just allowing there to be adults that have the time and the acumen to figure out how to help students guide and navigate the complexities of what school looks like.”
At ASU Prep Tempe powered by The Levitt Lab, each student has a “guide” who helps them set their learning goals, rather than a traditional teacher. As long as students are meeting their goals, McGrath continued, they’re able to determine how they spend the rest of their time.
“It’s all about engagement and joy and wonder,” she continued. “[We’re] trying to get the students on these passion paths by giving them respect for time.”
Rethinking Students’ Role in Their Education
“Whenever you allow the kids to really drive some of the design of what their school day looks like, you get that buy in and you get a different level of engagement as opposed to this constant sort of authoritarian model,” McGrath shared. “But truly, the idea of having students in the driver’s seat is not new. It’s just how to deliver on it and how to expect adults to pivot and change when their kids are bored.”
Clonlara has been putting students in the driver’s seat since 1967. “Clonlara School was founded as a place where children were respected as people, where they had autonomy and agency over their learning, and parents were invited in to be a part of that learning journey for their kids,” Huard explained.
As part of this philosophy, Clonlara students learn to plan their own projects and design their own learning experiences, Huard said. Teachers support students in planning projects that are both authentic and meaningful.
Rethinking Evaluation
“Our main goal for students is to help them learn how to learn,” Huard shared. “And we also really value six competencies that we use for our assessment and evaluation. One of them is content, but we also want kids to develop communication, collaboration, creative thinking, critical thinking, and confidence.”
At ASU Prep Tempe, evaluation is a two-way street. “We survey the kids a lot . . . and they give us really authentic feedback,” McGrath said. Students are asked to evaluate their guides, who are assessed partially based on how engaged and happy their students are.
Two Successful Hybrid Models
So what does all this rethinking look like in practice? The panelists shared details on their hybrid school models.
At Clonlara’s Ann Arbor campus, the school day runs from 9 to 2 for most students, with optional early drop off and after school options. Students attend either three or five days per week. Students who attend three days (Tuesday through Thursday) homeschool on Mondays and Fridays.
“We really tried to unbundle the schedule of school so that people could build their ideal schedule for their own family and for their own students for whatever reason,” Huard said.
At ASU Prep Tempe, students meet on campus four days per week for seminars, projects, and collaboration. The fifth day is optional—students can use that time to learn from home, work on a project somewhere, interview a faculty member, or attend a lunch and learn, McGrath explained.
Students spend about two hours a day working on core learning, McGrath shared. They also have “Socratic seminar,” which cultivates respectful dialogue, and “wonder sessions,” which are an ungraded time to “get excited about topics that are of interest,” McGrath explained.
So yes: with these two strong examples and many more in the growing number of microschools and other innovative school models across the U.S., we think it’s safe to say the future IS hybrid. Education is not one-size-fits-all, and embracing creative ways of learning just makes sense.
Watch the full video of the panel for more, and let us know what you think in the comments below!
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Support Clonlara
There are many ways to support Clonlara’s mission. Volunteer to share your time, knowledge, and experience; or donate and have a direct impact on our community.