Lutheran Education Advancement Partnership (LEAP)

Public policy options for educational choice are expanding rapidly. We can offer a Lutheran education to thousands of new families in the next decade.

Increase

Soaring Education Services, a division of Open Sky, is dedicated to increasing seats in K12 Christian schools and settings. We’re ensuring that character formation and Christian education not only endure in America but thrive and grow.

Develop

Committed to developing new seats in established congregations, Soaring has partnered with Lutheran churches to create new schools and expand existing programs across the U.S. Feedback from these initial partnerships is extremely positive.

Innovate

Soaring understands the landscape of education. The future of education includes traditional schools, microschools, hybrid homeschools, tiny private schools, and education resource centers. Creating “best-fit” learning models to fit a context is what we know.

What is Lutheran Education?

Lutheran Tradition
– Lasting Impact

The tremendous need for new seats in Christian schools is an opportunity. Together, we can meet the current needs in a community and make a consequential impact in the lives of children while employing the richness of our cultural traditions. To accelerate our impact on Christian education, Soaring wants partners with a shared vision who are excited to fund the development of new Lutheran education opportunities.

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Soaring Education is excited to partner with the
Lutheran Church Extension Fund for a collective impact.
By uniting the passion and heritage of the LCMS and the commitment of LCEF with the expertise and guidance of the Soaring Education team, we can expand Lutheran education in an environment of denominational support, school launch expertise, and keen market insight.

What Soaring Offers

Our team advances Lutheran education through a variety of services aimed at the district level and tailored for individual sites.

School Choice Analysis

FOR LCMS DISTRICTS: Provide a District-wide study highlighting current school choice opportunities, noting the implications and costs/risks associated with utilizing funding in a particular state or region. Provide an implementation plan (and/or support) to access new school choice dollars.

FOR INDIVIDUAL SITES: Provide a site-specific study for Lutheran schools of their current school choice opportunities. Provide guidance for utilizing school choice funds noting potential costs/risks and offering recommendations. Provide an implementation plan (and/or support) to make a Lutheran education more accessible and affordable for more families in their community.

Microschool Launch

FOR LCMS DISTRICTS: Host School Start-up Boot Camps to provide organization, training, and support for affinity-based and/or geography-based groups of new Lutheran school launch teams. Facilitate cohort organization for new groups to support each other.

FOR INDIVIDUAL SITES: Our team of educational experts advise school projects at every step of the process. We offer three distinct products:

-FEASIBILITY study to guide your initial consideration.

-School model DESIGN coaching to understand your needs and assets as you seek to create a good-fit model for your community.

-School development BUILD service that supports you as you organize and fashion your school; including a completed (micro)school operational playbook.

-Personalized operational support and coaching for new school launches.

School Growth Recommendations

FOR LCMS DISTRICTS: Create heat maps of data for targeted opportunities for school growth and expansion. Data sources will include OSE's school choice analysis for each state. LCEF's data on facilities, demographics, and population trends.

FOR INDIVIDUAL SITES: Collaborate with LCEF Real Estate Solutions to support their 5-Phase process to support Lutheran school growth plans.

Revitalization Services

FOR LCMS DISTRICTS: Provide customized training sessions to support existing Lutheran schools’ leadership teams. The purpose of these boot camp-style gatherings is to explore expansion or transition from a traditional model to a variety of new potential approaches, such as microschools, hybrid schools, homeschool resource centers, and other emerging models. These have the potential to maintain quality while creating strong financial sustainability and scalability.

FOR INDIVIDUAL SITES: Support existing, struggling Lutheran schools with the capacity and leadership to transition their school to a new thriving school model. Potentially includes a Feasibility Study, our Design and Build services, and/or individualized coaching.

Measurable Success

[Present statistics and achievements for creating new seats]

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[Describe funding successes]

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[Picture of an LCMS partner and descriptions of several schools or projects]

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