About Our School
Inspire, equip, and connect your child in a learner-driven school environment.
Inspire, equip, and connect your child in a learner-driven school environment.


Curiosity is the fuel that drives learning.
Learning doesn’t just happen. Young people have to want to learn.
By giving children the freedom to choose their own path – a path that’s supported by a community of learner-peers – they’re motivated to take on new challenges and explore their natural curiosities.
In other words, they learn to love learning! They’re also prepared for the challenges of real life.


At Acton Buckhead, we give kids the freedom to choose.
Acton Buckhead is a non-traditional private school that follows a learner-driven model.
Here, children choose how their classrooms are run, how to achieve specific goals, and the pace at which they learn. The result is a community of empowered learners who run toward new challenges – not away from them.
Our ultimate goal is to inspire each young person who enters our doors to discover their passion and harness it to change the world.
The 6 principles of learner-driven education

Treat every young person like a world-changing genius

Limit adults’ direct involvement in education

Ask questions. Don’t lecture

Praise growth

Equip young people to lead

Facilitate the Hero’s Journey


Here’s what we believe at Acton Buckhead

We believe each child has a gift that can change the world in a profound way.

We believe in a closely connected family of lifelong learners.

We believe in learning by knowing, learning by doing, and learning by being.

We believe in economic, religious, and political freedom.
Learner-driven education is very personal for me.
My K-12 school experience was probably similar to yours. In my Georgia public school, the kids didn’t love learning and the teachers were too bogged down to enjoy teaching. Like basically everyone else, I coasted through the system
College hit me like a ton of bricks. To say I struggled at first would be an understatement.
Though I ultimately graduated and embarked upon a career in education, I never forgot how woefully unprepared the traditional K-12 system had left me. During more than 20 years as an educator, charter school director, and education management company founder, I worked tirelessly to develop a K-12 model that actually inspired kids to learn.
That’s when I discovered Acton.

Andrew Shahan
Founder and Executive Director
Acton’s education model was a virtual mirror image of my own.
In Acton’s schools, I saw the type of learning community that I – after decades in the field – had concluded was the best possible learning environment for children.
Acton’s vision for education was practically identical to mine, and they were already making it a reality in schools around the United States.
When an opportunity arrived to open a school in Atlanta, I immediately adopted the Acton model. Today, Acton Buckhead provides the type of education that actually motivates children to learn, lead, and discover.

You’re going to be amazed by your child’s achievements.
Show your child what it’s like to truly love learning.