Arthur Kranz is a second grader at Gem Prep Pocatello, but he spends most of his day in a third-grade classroom. 

“It’s just fun and amazing,” Kranz said. “It’s a chance to get a higher learning opportunity.”

The walk-up program — where students take classes at the next grade level — is one of the initiatives that makes Kranz’s school and others like it stand out. 

Another is autonomy. Students are trusted with age-appropriate freedoms. Middle schoolers can work independently in a commons area akin to a university student union center. 

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Juniors and seniors can spend as much or as little time physically at school as they want, filling their schedule with online classes or opting to take classes on a university campus.

“It puts more ownership and more time management in the hands of these students, so they feel more ready for the college-level experience than many of their peers (who were) micromanaged all the way through high school,” said Jason Bransford, executive director of Gem Innovation Schools (GIS).

GIS has become the state’s largest charter network, with eight schools spread from Pocatello to Payette. And there are more on the way, with schools slated to open in Idaho Falls and Rexburg by 2027. 

While the schools provide certain freedoms, there are trade-offs.  For example, the Pocatello school doesn’t have a physical library or a music room. Transportation options are limited, and students who want to participate in athletics may have to do so at a nearby traditional school. 

Brookylnn Osborne, a secondary social studies teacher at Gem Prep Pocatello, said the school’s model is best for “a student who is self-motivated and has a goal.”

For students like Kranz, it’s a perfect fit. 

“If the kids are showing that they’re gifted, instead of them being bored or being taught down to, we are going to push them up as far as we can,” said Rachel Hollingsworth, a second grade teacher at Gem Prep Pocatello. “And so we have kids that go to the next grade level and they excel … We are preparing our kids for college from kindergarten.”

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Progressive freedoms, advanced opportunities help students develop skills needed for college

Like Kranz, eighth grader Sophie Wren spends part of her day in the next grade level. 

She takes ninth grade English in person, and takes ninth grade math online. 

“I think it’s very cool, because when I go to high school next year, I will be prepared and I will be able to be ahead and potentially earn my associate’s degree,” she said. 

Bransford said that’s one of Gem Prep’s goals for students — that they earn an associate’s degree by the time they graduate high school, so they are halfway to their bachelor’s degree. 

Currently, there are three in-person Gem Prep schools that serve K-12 students, and an online school. 

Bransford said Gem Prep graduates tend to be prepared for 300-level college classes right out of high school, because they’ve learned how to manage their time and become responsible students. They didn’t have a teacher “standing over their shoulder” and telling them to turn in their assignments until they “were 18 years old and walked across the stage.” 

Those freedoms build up over time. Starting in sixth grade, students who are doing well in class get the privilege of doing classwork in a commons area. That privilege can be revoked if they are not responsible, Bransford said. “What we find is that becomes a real motivator to stay on top of their schoolwork.”

Students begin taking online courses in middle school, and take more as time goes on. The online classes provide opportunities to take electives they may not be able to access otherwise. 

Wren, for example, is taking an online American Sign Language class. Wren said her online classes are spaced out, and she still gets plenty of social interaction time with her peers. 

By the time students are juniors and seniors, they can pack their schedule with online classes or on-campus college classes and spend as much or as little time at their Gem Prep school as they want. 

While they may miss out on a traditional senior year experience marked with assemblies and spirit weeks, they get other opportunities “they wouldn’t have had had they been locked in a high school building, so to speak, from eight to three,” Bransford said. 

That could be anything from internships and job shadowing, to private pilot lessons or their first job. 

“They have the flexibility to have those experiences that would give them a leg up after high school.”

“It allows them a lot more freedom,” Osborne said while on her prep period last week. “The autonomy is definitely something I’ve never seen at any other school. (For older students) it means they get to be an adult. They can be off campus and have the freedom to do what they want and what they’re passionate about.”

Idaho Education News data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report.