Friday Feature: Compass Educators and Ellemercito Academy

Colleen Hroncich“Prior to the pandemic, I had never considered microschooling or delved into out‐​of‐​system learning environments,” says Lizette Valles, founder ofCompass Educators andEllemercito Academy in California.Lizette and her husband Oscar were long ‐​time private school teachers. After COVID-19 regulations closed schools, they founded Compass Educators: A Holistic Tutoring Company to help parents and students deal with distance learning challenges. Their goal was to meet students where they were and equip them to thrive in the new environ ment. It succeeded so well that some parents asked Lizette to privately homeschool their children.Creating a  microschool was the “natural next step” says Lizette. “We were already custom tailoring instruction for our students and growth was inevitable at that point. Families were seeing that a smaller, student‐​centered, and family‐​like environment was absolutely needed and something they wanted for their children.” Ellemercito Academy opened in 2021.Lizette and Oscar don ’t take a conventional approach to education. “We use a proprietary blend of tools and instructional strategies inspired by Erin Gruwell, Charlotte Mason, and Paulo Freire’s problem‐​posing educational approach coupled with place‐​based learning and a literature‐​rich curriculum ,” says Lizette. They follow the Los Angeles Unified School District’s curriculum for English, math, science, and history bec...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs