Paideia Learning
A Model for Hybrid Homeschool Partnership
Paideia Learning serves as a vital link between Howell Public Schools (HPS) and families choosing to homeschool, offering a comprehensive, supportive, and parent-driven hybrid education program. This successful collaboration demonstrates how a public school district can fully embrace and empower the homeschooling community through innovative educational delivery.
Personal Connection and Purposeful Space Alliance
The partnership between Paideia Learning and HPS is designed to be both supportive and seamless. While HPS manages the administrative side, collecting FTE funding and compensating Paideia as a vendor, this relationship goes beyond the standard dynamic of digital curriculum providers. In addition to curriculum and teachers, it also offers a deeply personal, human touch. This unique bridge between public and home education is anchored in strong local ties and an HPS administration dedicated to the program's success.
The program's success led to substantial growth, necessitating a move from a smaller facility to its current expanded location: a dedicated wing within Howell’s Parker Middle School. This two-floor wing, formerly used by Lansing Community College, provides ample space for the program’s 330 students. Paideia maintains a distinct environment with its own separate entrance, ensuring its community can access the facility without impacting the main middle school flow. The first floor is dedicated to BK through 4th grade, while the second floor serves 5th through 12th grade.
The program's physical layout fosters a unique sense of community; while younger students share lunch at hallway tables on the lower level, students in 5th grade and up utilize the middle school gym for lunch and recess, with older students even having access to the school's hot lunch program.
A Comprehensive Hybrid Model
Paideia operates as a drop-off hybrid program, providing a structured environment where parents are not required to stay in the building, though they remain the lead instructors at home for the majority of the week. For students receiving funding through Howell Schools, the program includes 36 weeks of online learning components and assignment submissions through a digital platform. This model is designed to give parents the courage to homeschool by providing a clear framework and a supportive community.
The on-campus schedule is divided into two cohorts: students in BK through 3rd grade attend on Mondays and Wednesdays, while the BK through 12th grade cohort meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On the longer days (Mondays and Tuesdays), students are on-site from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, enjoying two hours of electives and four hours of core curriculum.
On the shorter days (Wednesdays and Thursdays), the program runs from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm and includes one elective. For students in 4th grade and up, the schedule includes two student-selected electives on long days and one assigned elective on short days. These on-site days are the heartbeat of the program, where students move beyond books to engage in hands-on projects, art, music, and logic classes, while older students focus on rich, Socratic-style discussions.
This model appeals to a diverse range of people in the community. Families who attend Paideia Learning are connected in other aspects of the community and are united in seeking a robust, parent-driven alternative to the traditional school setting.
Curriculum, Staffing, and Support
Paideia uses a blend of custom and established resources to ensure a strong academic foundation that mirrors the continuity of the home environment. To simplify the home-instruction process for families with multiple children, the BK-8 curriculum is aligned so that all students study the same time period in History and the same strand in Science.
For full-time students, Paideia writes its own curriculum, including NCAA accreditation for core classes, which is then approved by the Howell Public Schools Board. The curriculum is thoughtfully aligned and supplemented by several high-quality, book-based resources:
- Math: Right Start (Elementary) and Saxon Math (Middle School)
- ELA: Memorial Press and IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing)
- Science: NOEO
- History: Story of the World
This book-based approach ensures that students are learning through quality fiction and non-fiction rather than just standard worksheets.
Beyond core academics, Paideia offers a wide array of electives, both on-site and through local vendors. Students can explore Music Makers, Zoology, and Tinkering on campus, or head off-site for unique opportunities like agriscience at Brighton Stables, karate at Ohana Karate, or golf at Huntmore Golf Club.
The program's staffing model is equally robust. Early elementary through 3rd-grade classrooms are led by a certified teacher, a Teacher of Record (TOR), and an assistant. From 4th grade up, students learn from subject matter experts, who may be certified teachers or industry professionals, with a TOR always assigned to oversee progress. Beyond the classroom, families have access to a counselor two days a week for career planning, as well as Howell’s Special Education services and on-site interventionists who visit weekly to support student success.
More than just a school, it provides a vital social outlet for students and a support network for parents who want to be the primary influencers in their children's education without doing it entirely alone. While many programs rely on traditional marketing, Paideia’s growth to 330 students has been almost entirely organic, driven by its reputation for being a warm, welcoming, and accepting environment.
Seamless High School Integration and Future Readiness
Paideia celebrated its very first graduating senior in 2026. Because of the deep integration with the district, students who complete their Paideia journey earn a Howell Public Schools diploma, effectively bridging the gap between a personalized home education and a recognized public credential. Full-time students are also fully immersed in the Howell Highlander culture, with the door open for them to participate in all of the same athletic and extracurricular activities available to full-time in-person students.
Academic flexibility is a core strength for Paideia high schoolers, particularly through Howell’s Highlander Virtual program. This partnership allows students to take AP virtual classes and choose between synchronous or asynchronous learning paths. The asynchronous option is especially popular, as it allows students to work independently while still utilizing Paideia for in-person social and academic support. For students who want a taste of a larger campus environment, there is also the option to attend classes at Howell High School to take advantage of their block scheduling or participate in Dual Enrollment and Early College programs, earning college credits while still in a supportive environment. A counselor dedicated to career coaching is on-site to help students navigate the options and create their own path.
From empowering parents to ensuring students can graduate with a Howell diploma, Paideia Learning provides an outstanding model for how a hybrid homeschool program can thrive in close partnership with a supportive public school district. This success is rooted in a reputation for being a warm, welcoming, and accepting community that serves as a vital social outlet for students and a support network for parents alike. By combining the flexibility of home-based learning with the robust resources of Howell Public Schools, the program ensures that every student is uniquely equipped to transition into the professional world or higher education with a high level of confidence, maturity, and academic readiness.
Author: Lisa Sitkins, President and CEO, LSS Connections and Consulting LLC, August 2026
This work was written with the assistance of AI tools. The author takes full responsibility for the final content.