Communities in the Driver's Seat: Black Mothers Forum Microschools Raise Sustainability Questions

Black Mothers Forum (BMF) was founded in 2016 to combat institutional racism, including disproportionate discipline, unrepresentative curricula, and racial bullying in Phoenix-area schools. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted public education, the organization launched a network of microschools as outposts of this mission. These microschools were able to start quickly, make frequent course corrections, and sustain their efforts after the pandemic, thanks in part to Arizona's growing ecosystem of diverse education options. The initial pandemic-era effort to launch these microschools was documented in a case study published by the Center on Reinventing Public Education in 2022. This followup brief revisits the initial case study with an eye toward the pedagogical tensions and questions of sustainability that it brought to light. This brief is based on in-person classroom observations, a new round of interviews with BMF microschool leaders and educators, and an analysis of Arizona's education policy landscape.