Colleen Hroncich
Even before she had children, former public school teacher Jada Robinson often tried looking at her classroom as if she were a parent. “I would always think ahead—if this was my child in this class and my child was in this environment, how would I feel about that? Would I be okay with it?” she recalls. It gave her insight into what she wanted for her future children—and a foundation for what would eventually become Bright Minds STEAM Studio near Houston, TX.
Having moved from teaching elementary school to serving as a math and science specialist, Jada took a step back when her oldest was around three years old. She decided to stay home with her two daughters and begin a journey toward homeschooling them. Jada says her daughters have completely different personalities, and she noticed one “gravitated towards STEM, but in a very artistic way.”
After her four-year-old daughter talked about “precipitation” when it was raining, Jada realized how much knowledge she was absorbing. “I did a lot of research in regards to STEM, but also the art component with the STEAM, because my daughter would naturally tend toward the artistic expression of song, of painting, of dance,” she says. “The more I researched, I realized that it lends itself to such a comprehensive experience for children that is such a vital foundation for their learning. And so just naturally, I started to incorporate that in our homeschool routine. And then COVID hit.”
Jada had been pondering ways to bring what she was learning to other children, but when things were shutting down during the pandemic, she didn’t think it was the right time. Then she considered the parents who had to go back to work and the children who needed a place to go.
“After much prayer, I decided to open a learning center for kids,” she explains. When people pointed out the difficulties, she responded, “I understand that, but I know that if I’m a parent desiring a small intimate learning environment for my children in the midst of these times, surely there’s someone else out there that feels the same way.”
By chance, she found a building available for lease that had the openness she was looking for, so she jumped right in. She began with shorter, 90-minute sessions where kids could come for a fun learning environment, and that grew to become a pre-kindergarten program. After the kids left for kindergarten, several of their parents asked her to start a kindergarten because they weren’t happy with the public school. She’s grown with those students and has offerings through second grade. For kindergarten, kids can choose full-time (Monday through Thursday) or hybrid (in person Monday and Wednesday and at home the other days). First and second grade is currently only the hybrid program. Will she keep growing as her students get older? “As long as their parents are telling me, ‘We’re not leaving you, Miss Jada,’” she says.
While she wants to be able to expand to meet her students’ needs, Jada doesn’t want to change the small school atmosphere. “It definitely has a feel of a one-room schoolhouse. And so we know the students; we know exactly where they are, regardless of their age, regardless of their grade. Everyone is on their own individualized learning path, so everyone is moving and progressing at their own pace,” she explains.
When the students first enroll, Jada does an initial assessment to see where they are and builds a learning plan from there. This year, she hired another teacher—a literacy specialist—for the first time to ensure she can still provide that individualization with more students.
At Bright Minds, the day begins with a soft start to “get their brains going,” as Jada puts it. “After our soft start, we do a morning meeting, which really sets the tone for the day. We do our social-emotional lessons embedded in our morning meeting where we talk about ‘what does a loyal friend look like’ or different traits of their character. Then we break off into what we call the work cycle,” she says. During the work cycle, some kids work with the literacy specialist while Jada does math with the other group. After a snack break, they switch groups. For the hybrid students, Jada provides lessons for the satellite (at-home) days.
In addition to the academic content offered Monday through Thursday, Bright Minds has a Fun Fridays program for homeschoolers. This provides weekly STEAM enrichment in a project-based learning environment. Students who participate in Fun Fridays can also attend any field trips Bright Minds has during the year.
With all of the buzz over Texas potentially enacting its first private school choice program, Jada is unsure whether she’d participate. She says she’s looking at it “through the lens of a former public school teacher, and a parent, and now a business owner” and has some concerns. She understands how it could benefit children—including her own—who are being educated outside the public school system. But she currently has the freedom to pick and choose what she’s teaching without any constraints, and she’s not sure she would want to give that up since her students are thriving. “From the feedback that I’ve received from the parents, 100 percent of the students who have gone through Bright Minds are on level or beyond—most of the time it is beyond,” she says. “And I’ve had students go to the top private schools in our area, and I’ve had students go to public.”
Jada’s concerns are a good example of why it’s crucial for policymakers to give the utmost flexibility when designing school choice programs. Parents and teachers are in a much better position than state bureaucrats to see what individual kids need. Programs that incorporate freedom and flexibility are likely to spur the creation of educational options that can meet diverse student needs and family preferences.
Like most of the education entrepreneurs I talk to, Jada encourages others who are considering starting their own microschool. “Go for it,” she urges. “I do believe that this is such an innovative group of people that are saying, ‘No, I don’t want to conform. I want to be able to provide XYZ. I want to be a trailblazer for education. I want to be a pioneer for non-traditional environments. I want to make a difference in a way that may be out of the norm, out-of-the-box, or unexpected.’ And I think if they just reflect on their ‘why’ and really stick to what’s driving them, what’s motivating them, I think they’ll go really far.”