We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Soifer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.

Ashley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

Microschooling is the most exciting movement in American education in a generation. We know that the world is rapidly changing, however we aren’t seeing large schools systems adapt to keep up with these rapid changes. Parents are asking themselves if conventional school settings are really preparing their children for the future that is front of them.

Microschooling is small, innovative and flexible. The educators in microschools have the opportunity to truly know each child and family. This allows them to customize the education for each individual child. Microschools have the opportunity to truly focus on what matters to them and the families they serve. I have the opportunity to work with microschools across the nation which allows me to see some of the different models being offered. We work with microschools that have a STEM focus, some that have an entrepreneur focus, others that have a focus on social-emotional learning, some choose to focus on work-force development, some are faith-based. The list goes on and on.

Our latest report, the National Microschooling Center’s 2024 Sector Analysis, shows that the majority of families choosing microschools are at or below the average income in their area and that 40% of children attending microschools come from district-operated public schools.

We are really seeing children thrive in these settings. I love hearing from microschool founders and families about how children are succeeding in ways they never have before. Children are experiencing academic and nonacademic growth, advancing multiple grade levels, showing an increase in confidence and finding an environment where they feel safe, seen and able to be themselves.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My journey has definitely not been one I had ever imagined myself on, but I couldn’t be more thrilled that I am where I am today. I have always had an interest in filmmaking. As a born and raised Nevadan, I was so grateful for the opportunity to work on some pretty cool films (like The Trust with Elijah Wood) and really great independent productions (like Death to False Hipsters, Daddy Loves Me and more). We had a film tax incentive that was attracting big productions to the Las Vegas Valley and I was absolutely loving every minute of it!

When the film tax was defunded, a lot of the paying work slowed down. I started at working at a charter school (where my three children attended) as a teacher’s assistant (TA), which was a lot of fun, and incredibly eye-opening. I worked as a TA for only a short time before moving into the office and working closely with the administrative team. I was overseeing community events, increasing enrollment, and learning a lot about the state of education in Nevada while I was doing it.

Fast forward a few years, I was offered a job to work with Don Soifer. Don was running a Nevada-based education action tank and asked me to be his Chief of Staff. My last day at the charter school was March 13th 2020, the day everything in Nevada closed down. I jumped right in to my new job with Don, and as an education nonprofit during the pandemic, it was all hands on deck.

In August 2020 we created the first ever public-private parternship microschool, the Southern Nevada Urban Micro Academy (SNUMA) in partnership with the City of North Las Vegas. This first-of-its-kind microschool was free for NLV residents, designed around learning lost and operated in rec centers and a library. It was amazing. And it was hard. Really hard. But I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. Designing, launching and operating a microschool with Don (who later in 2021 became my husband) was such an incredible experience. The families I had the opportunity to work with impacted me in life-changing ways.

The City of North Las Vegas, Don and I received a significant amount of positive press for the microschool we had created which led to others in Nevada reaching out to us to ask for our help in launching microschools. Suddenly, we were a part of a thriving and dynamic ecosystem of microschools in the Las Vegas Valley, offering free resources such a training, learning tools and more to these inspiring microschool leaders.

From there, our work expanded. Other states, such as West Virginia and Mississippi started asking Don and I to help foster the growth of ecosystems of microschools in their communities. In August 2022, Don and I launched the National Microschooling Center and haven’t paused since.

Launching a microschool is a really exciting journey, but it comes with a lot of questions….how should I be governed? What frameworks can I operate under? What zoning laws do I need to be aware of? We offer free assistance to anyone starting a microschool, everything from individual one-on-one calls to group trainings, we are here for the founders every step of the way. We have ongoing learning cohorts, pro-bono legal assistance for any founder experiencing regulatory pushback, access to learning tools that are difficult for small microschools to access and a community of founders that have found a space within the Center to come together, share kowledge and resource, and be a support to each other.

As a microschool founder and a parent of three microschooling children, I am so grateful for the incredible founders I get the chance to work with every day. These are the permissionless educators that are creating a solution to a problem they see in their community. They are changing the lives of the children they serve.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I absolutely love this story. Don and I work together so incredibly well. We met when I was working with the charter school in 2017. Don had just moved to Nevada and launched Nevada Action for School Options. He was hosting a Spring Speaker Series where he brought national experts in education to Nevada to present on different topics. I attended one and immediately realized that Don was someone I wanted to learn from. I reached out and we started meeting up for coffee to talk through different barriers in education in Nevada and possible solutions.

In 2020 I went to work with Don as his Chief of Staff. It was a period of intense learning like none other. I studied his research papers (and everything else he sent my way to read) and came back each day with new questions. It was quickly apparent how well we worked together, which was absolutely crucial to our success. When launching SNUMA, I always appreciated that Don asked for and valued my input. He sees my background that is most definitely not in education as a strength to our organization rather than a weakness.

When we decided to launch the National Microschooling Center, we knew it would be as cofounders. We complement each other really well and our tireless determination to foster change makes it easy to partner in our organization. We definitely have our share of disagreements, but we are committed to hearing each other out which makes our work stronger.

And because we work so well together, and have a ton of fun in the process, we decided to get married. It helps that we kinda like each other a lot.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Building our reputation with the education movement is really about relationships. It’s about understanding that every single person we work with truly matters. We know and understand the barriers that microschools are up against and we strive to create a trusting relationship with each one. I am humbled by the microschool founders who ask us questions, turn to us for resources, celebrate their wins and commiserate over their struggles. These founders are incredible people doing some really tough work. Creating a place where relationships matter was so important to both Don and I. I love that the hundreds of microschool founders I work with are also my friends. I know who is struggling to find a location for their microschool, who’s fiancee is in the hospital after having a heart attack, who’s child just graduated, who’s mother-in-law passed away. People matter. Their work matters. Valuing relationships and keeping those at the fore of all the work we do has really made an impact on our reputation.

Something else that was incredibly important to Don and I was to make sure that everyone on our team has founded, led or been a guide in a microschool. That’s been helpful to our reputation as well because when someone reaches out to our team, they know that they will talk to someone who understands exactly what it means to run a microschool.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://microschoolingcenter.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/national_microschooling_center/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NationalMicroschoolingCenter
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-soifer-57820713b/
• Twitter: https://x.com/ashrcam
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nevadaactionforschoolsopti9718