Location: Mueller (East-Central Austin)
Students served: Ages 10–14
Current enrollment: 6 (maximum enrollment is 15 students)
Model/philosophy: The Driven community carries three core tenets: 1) Question the premise of the question politely. 2) Check your ego at the door. 3) Be willing to learn what is needed.
Special features: Driven is a school within a makerspace. The makerspace is a large room full of tools to make almost anything the students can dream of. There is a knife making forge, kiln, commercial embroidery machine, giant laser cutter, MIG welder, dye sublimation printer, CNC router, vinyl cutter, and a wide variety of hand and power tools. Driven leans into learning to use as many tools as possible because these skills open up opportunities for both hands-on academic learning and creative expression.
Schedule: 9am–3:30pm, August 13–May 30
Tuition: $19,475
Contact: Ken Hawthorn | founder@austinschoolforthedriven.com
Each listing in this alphabetical directory gives you a snapshot of a small, independent, alternative school in the Austin area.
This frequently updated list spans several pages, with navigation buttons at the bottom. Clicking on the name of a school will take you to its own website. To easily find schools by geographical area, see our Alt Ed Maps page. If you know of a school that’s missing from this directory, please drop a note here, and see Alt Ed Austin’s criteria for “alternative” and “school.” You may also be interested in our directories of other recommended schools (which are mostly larger or more specialized or religiously oriented), as well as special programs for children and adults.
Full disclosure: Alt Ed Austin founder Teri Sperry has ties with several of the schools listed on this site. Her child, now an adult, attended two of them years ago. She has friends who direct, teach at, or are otherwise involved in others. Some programs choose to advertise from time to time on Alt Ed Austin as Sponsoring Partners. She firmly believes that all of the schools featured on this site (including the ones to which she has no personal connection and those from which she receives no advertising fees) are good choices for some kids, each for different reasons.
