Why don’t more schools do this?

Traditional large schools are designed to optimize for scale, providing a good enough level of literacy and arithmetic to the entire population in a centrally manageable and cost efficient way. Inspired by manufacturing best practices, specialized roles between administrators and teachers along with standardized material and expectations by grade level make it easier to hire and train staff, measure outcomes, and ensure a consistent experience across the population. This factory-efficient management of students through the standard grade pipeline reduces costs, but it saps the joy out of learning for both kids and teachers. It may avoid some bad outcomes, but it also stifles the possibility of great ones.

I believe this model of “good enough” schooling is no longer good enough. Education is more important than ever, our society is wealthier than ever, yet US education spending as a % of GDP has dropped steadily over the past 20 years. Inner Fire was designed from the ground up with the goal of providing the best possible educational environment for every student. That requires more teachers per student, with less administrative support. It requires trust between teachers and parents directly, with less bureaucratic oversight. And it requires a greater investment of time and resources in education from talented people. 

It may not be something every school can do today, but it is the direction we should start moving in.