Location: Central Austin
3901 Shoal Creek Blvd
Austin, TX 78756
Students served: Accepting enrollment for the 2026–2027 school year for grades K–4, with a new grade added each year until TCS becomes a K–8 school
Current enrollment: 10 students enrolled in grades K–4
Model/philosophy: The Compass School (TCS) is an independent, learner-centered school. Grounded in research and progressive education principles, TCS is designed around the child—giving students the opportunity to explore their curiosity, develop agency, make meaningful connections, and understand themselves as learners. At TCS, Austin is a classroom. Learning extends beyond the walls of the school as students explore Austin’s parks, neighborhoods, natural spaces, cultural institutions, businesses, and history. These experiences provide authentic contexts for students to ask questions, build knowledge, solve problems, and connect classroom learning to the world around them.
Special features: TCS is intentionally designed and developed with the expertise and experience of professional educators. It combines explicit instruction, inquiry, project-based learning, purposeful play, and hands-on exploration. Students participate in Deep Dives, Innovation Lab challenges, and Austin-based learning experiences that invite them to investigate questions, create solutions, and share their thinking. Dual-grade classrooms provide opportunities for collaboration across ages while maintaining an approximately 8:1 student-to-educator ratio. Students also participate in weekly mentorship and goal-setting to develop agency, self-awareness, and ownership of their learning. Family partnership is an important part of the TCS experience, with families participating in collaborative roundtables, learning workshops, community gatherings, and other opportunities to learn alongside educators. A scaled tuition model is designed to make a TCS education more accessible to families.
Schedule: 8:45am–3:30pm Monday–Friday; August 24, 2026–June 4, 2027; after-school program until 5pm
Tuition: Based on a scaled tuition model, not to exceed $24,750 per year
Contact: Geoff Harrison, Founder | gharrison@tcsatx.org
Each listing in this alphabetical directory gives you a snapshot of a small, secular, independent, alternative school in the Austin area.
Hover over and click on a school’s name at the top of its listing to open the school’s website in a new tab. This frequently updated list spans several pages, with navigation buttons at the bottom. 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.
