In partnership with our funders, the Center on Reinventing Public Education launched a national initiative that brought together researchers from around the country to track and analyze the pandemic pod movement. Our goal was simple: to learn from the families, educators, and community-based organizations who stepped in during the crisis to solve urgent challenges and, along the way, invented educational solutions that could outlast the pandemic.
This report is one part of that larger effort. It offers the first in-depth look at families’ and educators’ experiences with pandemic pods, drawing upon a national survey of 152 parents and 101 instructors who participated in a pod during the pandemic, and follow-up interviews with 62 survey respondents.
Key Findings
Families and students
- Over two-thirds of pod families cited at least one tangible benefit for their child.
- Families valued pods’ student-centered learning environments.
- Families participating in pods that primarily relied on remote instruction were less satisfied with their experience.
- Pods could help families gain information and influence over their child’s learning.
- Pods brought families closer together—often for better, sometimes for worse.
- Families tended to pod with “like-minded” people, but some sought to increase diversity and inclusion.
Educators
- Instructors turned to pods to weather a crisis, but many also perceived a career opportunity.
- Instructors drew on diverse backgrounds and skill sets.
- Instructors gained freedom in their teaching and opportunity to build close, personal relationships with students.
- Compared to school settings, pod instructors were challenged by fewer opportunities for collaboration and support.
Recommendations
State and local policymakers can strengthen supports for families and educators who opt out of the traditional system by:
- Offering targeted resources to low-income families.
- Allowing out-of-system families to tap resources inside schools.
- Addressing regulatory gray areas.
Funders can help seed innovation and infrastructure supports that help families and educators thrive inside and outside the system. They should consider:
- Investing in new, creative models for learning both inside and outside school systems.
- Seeding infrastructure supports that address barriers facing families and educators operating outside the system.
- Scaling research investments so that the field can learn from success and failures.
Pods in Profile
Our survey sample included 152 families and 101 instructors from 33 states who participated in pods during the 2020–21 school year.
Case Studies
See individual case studies from learning pods we observed.
Black education leaders: Leaving public schools can help save our kids
For Black children, the public education system is like a dirty fish tank. They’re swimming in toxic conditions like discriminatory discipline and low expectations. But
Pods in Action: KaiPod Learning
A new company sustaining the pandemic pod model offers flexibility to teachers, students and parents.
Pods in Action: The Oakland REACH
REACH’s story demonstrates the potential for community-based organizations to play a larger role in addressing both current challenges and longstanding iniquities in the public education system.
Pods in Action: The Central Florida Urban League
CFUL opened Whitney M. Young Academy, a microschool designed to meet the individual needs of low-income, African American students.
Pods in Action: The Boston Community Learning Collaborative
A group of community-based organizations that had been working to reimagine education before the pandemic capitalized on a window of opportunity to create new microschool-inspired learning environments for Black and Latino youth.
Pods in Action: Black Mothers Forum
An education advocacy group that responded to the COVID-19 crisis by launching two microschools for Black families in Phoenix, Arizona.
