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Start your own Primer microschool
We have a simple thesis on how to fix our K-12 education system: empower 1,000's of educators to launch microschools in their communities.
If you’ve ever dreamed of starting a school to serve your community, we’re here to make that a reality.
What is the Primer Leader Fellowship?
The Primer Leader Fellowship is a paid program designed to help you launch your own Primer microschool. You’ll join other educators around the country working to bring a world-class education to their community.
Think of the Fellowship like an evening MBA — you’ll be expected to attend weekly live (virtual) programming and work towards key milestones related to launching your Primer. You can easily participate in the Fellowship while working a full-time job.
There’s no cost associated with this for you. In fact, if you’re accepted to the Fellowship, you’ll receive a monthly stipend. In June 2025, you'll officially launch your microschool and convert to a full-time Primer team member with a competitive salary, benefits, economic upside in your school, and more.
Why join and launch a microschool with us?
From the earliest whiteboard sessions to welcoming your inaugural students to your microschool in 2025, we’ll have your back every step of the way.
Primer will take on all the risk and responsibility of your microschool’s lease and campus operations. You’ll incur zero costs to open up your Primer.
During the Fellowship, you’ll receive a monthly stipend to compensate you for your time. In June of 2025, you’ll transition to a full-time leader of your Primer with a competitive full-time salary (between $60k/yr and $75k/yr depending on your geography), great benefits, and additional earning opportunities of $10k-$25k/yr.
As a part of the Fellowship, you'll receive equity in Primer. If you love the hustle, there are additional earning opportunities available to you (think: summer programming, after-school programs, and more).
No need to worry about the zoning, health, fire and DOE requirements for your microschool. We’ve got you covered. (And trust us, this is really hard!)
All of our existing microschools run on our proprietary product, PrimerOS. It offers everything you need to deliver a world-class student and parent experience and automates (almost) all the administrative busywork many teachers are used to.
We’ve spent years perfecting the playbook for launching microschools. Now, the playbook can be yours. We’ll teach you everything you need to know about launching — and growing —
your Primer.
Think you have what it takes to launch your own Primer Microschool? Here’s what you’ll be doing throughout the Fellowship program:
During the beginning of the Fellowship, your primary focus will be finding a suitable location in your community for your Primer, with at least three classrooms, open space, private bathrooms, and dedicated parking.
You’ll recruit and enroll the first 15 students for your microschool with the support of our marketing campaigns and resources.
You’ll be given and learn everything you need to launch your own Primer microschool, including our curriculum, our proprietary software, marketing materials, and more.
You’ll be expected to dedicate 5 hours per week to launching your own Primer. This will look like: 1 hour per week of live programming and 1-3 hours of weekly assignments.
After receiving your application, our team will quickly let you know if you have been selected as a finalist. If you’re selected as a finalist, you’ll be invited to a 45-minute call with our CEO and put together a preliminary plan for sourcing a campus location and recruiting your first students. We'll let you know soon after whether you've been accepted into the Fellowship.
No problem! Our program is set up to work like an evening MBA, allowing you to balance a full-time job. Once your microschool launches in fall 2025, you’ll transition into a full-time Primer leader.
We have two upcoming cohorts, one in late November, and one in early 2025. Depending on when you apply, you'll be placed in one of these cohorts if you're accepted.
Most of your work during the Fellowship will be in your community, like talking to potential campus locations and recruiting students. However, the regular programming each week will happen on Zoom.
As a part of the Fellowship, you’ll receive a monthly stipend of $500. After the Fellowship concludes and your microschool is ready to launch, you’ll earn a competitive full-time salary (between $60k/yr and $75k/yr depending on your geography) with great benefits, equity, and additional earning opportunities through after-care and summer programming (10k-25k/yr).
You should have previous experience working with kids, but you do not need to be an active teacher.
These are the two main asks we make of you as a prospective Primer Leader, so they are required in order to successfully launch your Primer. That said, don’t stress — we’ll be working together every step of the way, from sourcing potential locations to helping with marketing efforts to recruit students.
Of course! We’ll be running ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google (and other online channels) and supplementing with marketing efforts like direct mail and radio ads, depending on your geography.
Yes - your Primer will be co-located with two other leaders launching their own Primers in different grade bands, making it easy for families to drop off multiple students in different grade levels at the same location.
Each Primer serves a maximum of three grades in a single classroom. Our typical campus is three Primer Leaders serving one grade-band each: one for K-2, one for 3-5 and one for 6-8. We’re strong believers in the large body of research suggesting that mixed-age classrooms are more supportive of student growth, so we’re intentional about creating these spaces at each Primer.
We take the trust that parents put in us to educate their children very seriously, and we focus on the basics: core academics and true passion projects. We believe parents have the ultimate authority and responsibility for the ideological formation of their children — so we welcome families of all religions and political backgrounds, but set the expectation that it won’t be part of the classroom experience.
