Nine campus centers study the new schools. None prepares their teachers.
Research on hybrid schools, homeschooling and microschools now has a home on campus. Preparing the people who teach in them does not.
We checked nine university centers that study school choice or the schools it pays for, against six things a center can do: study, publish data, convene, train researchers, prepare educators, and run schools.
All nine study. Four publish data. Three convene. Two train researchers: Harvard's PEPG and Arkansas's Department of Education Reform. None prepares educators, and none runs a school.
The newest models get studied from unexpected places. Kennesaw State's National Hybrid Schools Project sits in its business school, not its education college. Johns Hopkins's Homeschool Hub publishes participation data for 39 states. Tulane's federally funded choice center closed when its award ended in August 2025. Michigan State's EPIC, once a partner in that center, now studies the educator workforce instead of choice.
The limit, first. Nine centers is a starting set, not a census. A blank means the activity was not documented, not that it never happens. Funders appear on every side: EdChoice, Walton and Windgate for some centers; the NEA and AFT for Colorado's NEPC.
The full table, with each center's funding and source, is on the Leaders page.
Sources
- Kennesaw State — National Hybrid Schools Project
- Johns Hopkins — Homeschool Hub
- IES — REACH award record
- Michigan State — EPIC's new direction (Jan 2026)
Cite as: When Money Follows the Child. Nine campus centers study the new schools. None prepares their teachers Field Note 14, October 2026. https://www.whenmoneyfollowsthechild.org/notes/14/ Accessed [date].