Mat-Su Central in Wasilla, Alaska, is hard to label. It might accurately be called a hybrid homeschool, but that newfangled term belies its much-older origins. The school’s unique history helped shape it into what could be a model for the rest of the country, and it has lessons for any state or district leader looking to deliver personalized, high-quality public education. 

Mat-Su Central is a public school with about 2,200 students in grades K-12. It takes all students, and its workers are employees of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District. Its district is the second-largest in the state of Alaska, serving nearly 20,000 students spread out across a geographic area roughly the size of West Virginia. 

To reach all families, especially in the harsh winter months, in 1972 the Mat-Su district opened a correspondence school, which allowed students who weren’t physically present to complete coursework in their own homes on their own time. Its licensed teachers functioned more like advisers. They worked with families to craft an educational plan, but parents had to take some responsibility for teaching and even grading their child’s work, with the school providing ultimate oversight to make sure kids remained on track. 

Over time, Mat-Su Central’s leaders noticed that too many students weren’t graduating. After engaging a core group of families, they diagnosed the problem as a lack of connection among students, teachers and peers. So, a little more than a decade ago, the school added on-site classes to shift away from pure distance learning into the hybrid model it operates today. 

Every student has an that teachers, parents and students build together. They incorporate each student’s strengths and weaknesses and take into account classes the students need in order to graduate — such as reading, math, science and history, as well as any remedial work — and subjects they want to pursue, including art, music, welding and gymnastics. 

Some families opt for fully virtual classes, akin to private homeschooling but with the guidance and oversight of Mat-Su teachers. Other students want more in-person interaction, and they can take up to two classes at their local public school, enroll in college courses, attend classes on site or participate in local community programs. This flexibility affords families choices about what classes their kids want to take and what format they want to take them in. 

Parents can talk through those choices with their advisers, and the school has an that lets users sort potential offerings by grade, subject and method (online, hands-on or paper and pencil), and how the material is graded (by school staff, by parents or through an external provider). The site features staff notes listing the advantages and disadvantages of different curricula and whether those are available to rent from the school.

Mat-Su Central doesn’t have traditional classrooms, but it has dedicated art, music and technology rooms, plus a student-run coffee shop and flexible spaces for a variety of programs. On any given day, those rooms might be used by teachers for traditional subjects like history or Spanish, but they may also be used for walk-in math labs or guitar or ukulele lessons. A series of informational “Flapjack Friday” events touch on topics such as building household budgets or traveling to Europe. 

Families have access to educational options through of $2,600 to $3,000 per student, depending on grade level. It’s not a voucher or cash payment; the school retains control of the money and is responsible for paying and vetting vendors. Each child’s learning plan outlines how the allotment will be used, including for curriculum, community programs or other educational services. Students can also put the money toward a computer and monthly internet service. 

Over time, the school has curated a list of 300 community business partners who provide instruction and learning opportunities. (Each vendor must have a business license and pass the school’s quality review, as well as background checks for anyone working with students.) My favorite: This being Alaska, students have the option to use a portion of their allotment to earn their pilot’s license, in lieu of driver ed programs at many schools.

Even with the allotments, Mat-Su Central only $7,975 per pupil, less than half of the district’s $16,545 average. One reason is that the school doesn’t deploy teachers in normal classroom roles. Instead, it has 25 advisory teachers. Each serves as the teacher of record for an average of about 100 students, and some also provide tutoring or work with children with disabilities. They help craft and monitor students’ learning plans and guide families throughout the year.

The school has full-time art and music teachers on site, a nurse and two counselors who are available for in-person or telehealth visits. Advisory teachers can also design supplemental offerings for students to choose from. 

As the school’s core mission is serving families, staff members have been known to drive to students’ homes for parent meetings, met up at a coffee shop to work on a child’s learning plan or connected at Target to drop off textbooks. 

Still, Mat-Su Central puts a lot of responsibility on parents to monitor their child’s progress and even step in as instructor or evaluator. It doesn’t serve the full-day custodial role of a traditional school or provide transportation. 

It’s also hard for outsiders to know how well students at Mat-Su Central are performing. The state has flagged the school as needing “” because of low achievement among English learners. Principal Stacey McIntosh attributes that to the of families who opt out of state exams. She also notes that each individualized learning plan must include a standardized test to measure student proficiency, as well as a specific plan spelling out how any child not already proficient is going to get there.

One testament in Mat-Su Central’s favor is that families continue to flock to it. Enrollment in Mat-Su Central has roughly quadrupled over the last 20 years, far outpacing student population increases in the district and the state. McIntosh attributes that demand to concerns about bullying or students experiencing anxiety at more traditional schools, and she noted that pandemic-era closures led to a particular surge in interest. Going forward, the district is about to break ground on for the school to continue expanding its on-site offerings of clubs, classes and workshops.

After seeing Mat-Su Central in person, I left believing that every state needs a hybrid homeschool like it. This could take the form of “” as Robin Lake and Kelly Young outlined in a recent report for the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Or, states could grant individual school districts or charter schools the authority to serve families from broad geographic areas. 

Mat-Su Central’s hybrid model may not be for everyone, but it provides an option for children who aren’t well served by traditional public school districts. The combination of flexibility and portability for families, along with built-in monitoring and support from the teacher advisers, makes it an approach for other states to consider. 

Lodi’s position as a region that grew and sold its grapes — rather than making its own wine — was solidified in the 1920s during Prohibition. When other winemaking regions crumbled, Lodi flourished by capitalizing on one provision in the Volstead Act of 1919 that permitted every head of household to make up to 200 gallons of fermented fruit juice for their own consumption. In the blink of an eye, Americans across the country all became winemakers. Lodi’s farmers quickly turned their businesses from growing grapes for local winemakers and co-ops to growing and shipping grapes to home winemakers across America — and the model stuck.

Over the past three decades the crop value has quadrupled in Lodi, and the number of independent wineries is edging up, in an effort to encourage wine tourism and local winemaking — and, in effect, creating a career pathway for area students. The nonprofit group San Joaquin A+ partnered with the Lodi Unified School District, Delta College and the Lodi Winegrape Commission to design a technical education curriculum and internship pipeline to prepare students for careers in the winegrowing, winemaking and hospitality industries. The program, Growing Futures, is now in its first year, and has been described as an innovative solution to the skills gap, a financially rewarding career path for many young people, and a much-needed economic boost for family farms.

Brooklyn Laboratory Charter High School can most certainly be counted among the borough’s hidden gems for its innovative approaches to challenges that now plague schools nationwide.

Getting students back on track to graduate. Decreasing absenteeism. Supporting students’ and teachers’ well-being, all while preparing for the end of pandemic relief funds next year.   

Two Brooklyn-raised Black women, who reflect much of the student body at the small 9th to 12th grade college prep school, are leading into a new era coming out of the pandemic, revamping the status quo that left many educators exhausted and students dissatisfied.

Leaders and staff went to the drawing board, mining for solutions that filled gaps and brought joy back into school. 

Brooklyn Lab Charter’s social workers visited nearly 100 homes to find students, as absenteeism soared post-pandemic. Each student has a personal advocate both at school and with their families, an advisor who starts each day with a non-academic meeting to build relationships and discuss health or current events over free breakfast. Free photobooths, music, dinner, sports and games await those who show up on-time at weekly “No-Tardy Parties.”

Two teachers now lead each class, at least one of whom is special education certified, as the school adopts an all-inclusion-model. Morning office hours and a 6-week night school offer more chances for students to bridge academic gaps made worse by the pandemic. Teachers are now paid to lead and attend professional development sessions. 

“I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done to strengthen us where we need to be strengthened,” said CEO Garland Thomas-McDavid, who became a career educator after growing up in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood, becoming a teen mother and dropping out of high school. 

“Most schools are experiencing a lot of the same challenges
 Everyone was facing staff shortages, everyone was facing a great resignation.”

Amid the uncertainty, she and her team are finding new solutions to provide rigorous academic opportunities for students of color and students with disabilities who are frequently ignored and left unchallenged. 

“I’m not going to lower the bar,” she said. “I’m not going to go quietly into the night because I always think, what about the parent who can’t speak up? What about the parent who doesn’t have the resources? What about the parent who doesn’t even know what to ask for?”

Excellence is for Thomas-McDavid, a mother of five and parent to a 10th grader at Brooklyn Lab Charter. Having navigated special education services for her youngest, she knows how draining it can be for parents trying to advocate for what their children deserve. And being a native of East New York, where some students also live, she knows the difference schools can make.

The change at Brooklyn Lab Charter is palpable. Since October, the school has seen a 15% decrease in daily absences. Students and staff say students are more excited to come to school amid an almost-180 degree shift, after years of feeling flatlined. Nearly all, about 96%, of teachers are returning next school year.

“It was visible to some teachers that things had to change,” said Jeckesan Mejia, dean of instruction. “This year at every opportunity, we’re trying to implement feedback, changes, updates
 Just be in a space where we are not only reacting, but intentionally reacting.”

Over a hundred students participate in nine new sports, from e-Gaming to basketball.  A washer and dryer is open to all and a prayer room was set up during Ramadan. 

Roughly 80% of teachers are Black or brown, serving about 450 students who are predominantly Black, Latino and low-income. 

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“When you’re a school of this size, you have the ability to respond and cater to the community that you’re serving, and be more personable with the families that you meet, the people that you work with, and the staff that you hire,” assistant principal Melissa Poux told Âé¶čŸ«Æ·.

The school’s high expectations have continued since the school’s inception. 

External partnerships bring students into college classes at nearby universities. Mandatory AP classes and a microeconomics course at a local college helped senior Daniel Shelton see a future in law. His time management skills got better; he learned how to keep focus and retain info from long lectures. 

“It really opened my eyes,” Shelton said. “Prior to that, I would have really never known and been able to prepare myself to have the level of dedication to study — I had to devote all my weekends to it. And honestly I wouldn’t take any second back.”

“Back in the Lab”

Many of the Lab’s innovations this school year address multiple goals. 

In daily advisory, led by teachers or administrators, students discuss anything from mindfulness and health to current news and how to advocate for yourself. Low-cost “No-Tardy Parties” hosted in the gym help reinforce that school can be a joyful, positive place. 

Their inclusion model for special education also reduces isolation among students, while making classes more accessible and boosting teacher morale.

“Ms. Morales, my co-teacher, is not only my favorite person to work with but she has expedited my development more than I could even imagine,” said first-year earth science teacher and pre-med advisor Branden Medary, who came to the classroom after a career in neuroscience and has bridged a partnership to offer aerospace workshops by New York University students.

“If I’m doing something whack, she will happily pull me aside and be like, ‘Hey, you can do this, this, or this. I know those to work. What do you think?’”

Co-teachers lesson plan together as well so lessons are modified to support students of all ability levels.  

Some families have come specifically because of its inclusive approach to supporting students with disabilities. 

Administrators and teachers at Brooklyn Lab Charter are leaning on each other, too. Staff get paid extra to lead or attend professional development sessions, and now have free access to a local gym. Academic teams are probing deeper into assessment data to see how more subjects can reduce gaps. 

At the start of this school year, math scores showed many students struggled with word problems — at its core, a literacy problem. 

English and history teachers built in more time for reading comprehension, while math teachers introduced a “word problem checklist” to help students past initial panic and freeze-up: read the problem, restate what it’s asking, identify variables, etc. 

“The sheer fact that kids have the ability to check something off allows them to feel that progress, to be a little bit more resilient with what’s in front of them, and hopefully get to that last check.” 

Teachers also offer morning drop-in office hours, usually more amenable to teen’s schedules, particularly those who work. 

Those who need to finish more credits to graduate than is possible during the school day attend a 6-week night school program. 

Cultural responsiveness in and out of the classroom

Innovations underway boil down to understanding students and their families — being culturally responsive. 

At Brooklyn Lab Charter, administrators, a few of whom spent years at larger network charters criticized for pushing students with disabilities out or cultivating rigid or racist cultures, embrace the bustle that comes with being a school.

Students are themselves in hallways — as loud or as quiet as they want to be. Through the glass walls of the once-office space, hugs, fist-bumps, waves and smiles abound. 

Though their adjustment to being fully back in person was challenging at first, students describe the environment as more engaging and challenging than their previous schools. That they still feel a sense of community, feel welcomed. 

When asked why, the differences that stick with them speak to their experiences and dreams:

In February, dozens of local Black professionals presented and met one on one with students at their first ever “Success Looks like Me” , shaped by student input. 

“It’s not everyday that you find somebody from Coney Island who’s up there,” said Brooklyn Lab Charter senior Jayla Eady, an aspiring dermatologist. “Being that we’re from the same place, it shows that I can do it, too.” 

Like all schools, Brooklyn Lab Charter is still working through challenges, including enrollment – which dropped by nearly 100 after they ended remote options this school year – and a $5 million decline in funding as ESSER funds expire in 2024. 

On the student side, attention spans are dwindling as students adjust to the daily grind.

“The only way to allow for the attention to come back is to make things culturally relevant, make things relevant to them and what they can literally walk outside of this building and utilize today,” added Mejia.

Eleventh graders in Karen Asiedu’s AP Environmental Science course, learned about blood diamonds, cocoa farming, food supply chains and the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in the weeks after the AP exam. 

Anaya, a senior, compared her experience of walking into the building to showing up for family Thanksgiving: even if you didn’t know everyone beforehand, you fit in, feel comfortable and look after each other. Coming to the Lab after being treated like a nerdy outcast at her last school felt like a fresh start, a place where, “I can maybe be who I am.” 

“I feel very confident that like everyone that we’re in class with now will not just walk across the stage but be given their diploma,” she said. “That’s what I like — I’m glad it’s a no one left behind type thing.”

Disclosure: The XQ Institute provides financial support to Brooklyn Lab High School and Âé¶čŸ«Æ·.

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