In a Future of Education interview, Michael Horn talks with Curtis Indorf, founder and president of Great Hearts Nova, about the launch of Great Hearts' first national online academy. After piloting online programs in Texas and Arizona, Great Hearts will debut a K‑9 online academy in August, initially capping enrollment at about 80 students and adding one grade each subsequent year. The academy offers two delivery models: a live, teacher‑led small‑class seminar format (12 students K‑2, 18 students grades 3‑9, four‑day week) and a flexible, asynchronous model that gives families freedom while still accessing Great Hearts' classical curriculum. Indorf emphasizes the mission to democratize access to high‑quality classical liberal arts education, focusing on truth, goodness, and beauty, and mentions upcoming partnerships to provide college credit. Interested families can learn more at greatheartsonline.org, where information sessions will be held.
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Welcome to the future of education. Excited about today's quick conversation because we got some breaking news. Curtis Indorf here with me. He's the founder and president of Great Hearts Nova. Curtis, great to see you. Because Great Hearts, y' all have some like big news that you announced today. Why don't you tell us about it?
Yeah, thank you, Michael. I'm glad to be here and sharing it with you and sharing it with, with, with your viewers. So. So Great Hearts Academies is a national non profit organization, K through 12, serving kids in a classical arts education. We announced today that we're launching a national academy for Great Hearts online. So over the past two years, we've been piloting and designing and scaling Great Hearts online through Texas and Arizona and public charter schools. And now next August, we're launching a national academy. I'm so excited to spread that choice across the country.
So very exciting. And just so folks understand, Great Hearts obviously was this network of in person, as I understand it, charter schools, I think some private academies that were focused on this classical education. You launched the online charters in Texas and Arizona. Now you're going national with a private online option that basically anyone has access to to pay for. Or I suppose if you have an education savings account in your state, you could use that to enroll in as well. Is that the basic idea that.
That's exactly right. We want to democratize access to the best classical liberal arts education that you can receive. A lot of people don't have access to it and we want to solve that problem and really give parents choice over where and when and how their kids school well.
And to that end, if I understand correctly, the option that you're releasing come August itself actually has two different options for, for how a student family can engage with it. What are the options?
That's right. So next year we'll be launching K through 9. We'll add one grade level of time each year after that and have some exciting announcements in the coming months about some higher education partners that we'll be working with to provide college credit for those options. But there's two models. One is a live model, it's a teacher led live classroom model. And the other is a more flexible model. And so in the live model in K through 2, 12 kids in a live class for two and a half hours a day, Monday through Thursday. So really small, close knit, intimate community. And 18 kids in a live class for grades three through nine, Monday through Thursday. And so their kids are engaging in seminar small group conversations and discourse and talking through science experiments. In those conversations. And Fridays are asynchronous and afternoons are asynchronous. So that is really the teacher led live, small classroom, intimate relational experience. But we also have families that want more freedom and flexibility. They want to be able to do with their time what they want to do with their time. And so we have a flex model that also exists where families have ultimate freedom and flexibility, but they're still getting access to, to the largest classical institutes, the largest classical institution, Great Hearts in the United States. And so we're excited to give them that choice as well.
It's incredible. I mean, I, I suspect most people, when they think classical education, they're not thinking online, number one. Number two, they're not thinking of sort of all the micro school and virtual school things that you've done already. They're not thinking of national now academy that you can enroll in. And then they're probably not thinking about choice within like they prob. Would assume. Oh, of course it's going to be that seminar model, that sort of image, if you will, of Socrates with, with. With students having, engaging in conversation and questions and, and so forth. But this flexible model to have that as well, that seems like it's really breaking the mold for folks and I suspect maybe making this form of education more accessible to people. Is, Is that the reason that you're offering it?
That's right. That's right. We want to give families choice and access. And in talking with parents, whether for, for a whole bunch, families are interested in Great Hearts online. But, but there's a theme that weaves throughout where families want to be able to live and pursue their best life without sacrificing educational quality and without sacrificing educational purpose. Educational quality is, you know, is a rigorous, high quality, relationally rich school. And educational purpose is what is that school pointed toward? And at Great Hearts, our school is pointed towards the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty for kids. It's not just what they know, but it's who they are. And for millions of families across the United States, that's what they're looking for. So we want to give families that choice and access to that choice. And that's what we're doing with this academy.
How many students do you expect to enroll in the first year? You may not know that right now, but I'm just curious, what do you have your sights set on? What should we be expecting things to look like when rolls out in August?
Yeah, that's exactly right. So we're going to intentionally start small in cap classes. So the goal is around 80 kids, K through 9. We're going to start with a small subset of families. We have some of our very best teachers already lined up to be a part of this work. And so that's the plan for the coming year. In years to come, we'll obviously scale and grow from there and lots of other exciting community and field trip options that will layer on top. But we want to start small and we want to make sure we get this right with our first founding cohort of the National Academy.
Love it, love it, love it. Anything else we should know and bear in mind as we sort of bring this pretty exciting announcement to a close?
Yeah, I think come learn more. So I want to invite people to come to www.greatheartsonline.org. that's our website. We're going to have exclusive information sessions with our executive director, our headmaster with teacher is starting in March. For people who are interested and we all. I do. I'm sure you do, Michael. And many people watching, like they know, you know, of people who have kids in online schools or who are interested in online school themselves or for a variety of reasons, think I want more freedom and flexibility in my life, but I don't want to give up a great education. Consider it. A lot of our families said, oh, if it was, if I knew it was going to be like this, I would have joined a long time ago. And so we're excited to show what that could look like for you and your family.
Very cool. So check it out. Greatheartsonline.org we'll put that link in the notes as well. But, Curtis, congrats on launching it. I know it's been something you've been working on for quite some time. It's really exciting to see great hearts doing all this innovation in terms of the delivery vehicle, if you will, to make sure that people get access to this kind of education and just appreciate your efforts on behalf of students.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Michael. Thanks for the time today.
Yeah, you bet. We'll be back. Next time on the Future of Education.
