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

Given the right environment and circumstances, every child can cultivate their talents to change the world.

Limit adults’ direct involvement in education

Learners join and run our community with voluntary contractual freedoms and responsibilities.

Ask questions. Don’t lecture

Socratic techniques illustrate choices and consequences.

Praise growth

Foster a growth mindset through praise and encouragement, not grades.

Equip young people to lead

Model leadership first and then hand responsibility to learners so they can lead their own communities.

Facilitate the Hero’s Journey

Give children the courage to look where they least want to look to discover the next step on their personal journey.

Here’s what we believe at Acton Buckhead

We believe that clear thinking leads to good decisions. In turn, good decisions become good habits. Good habits become character, and character becomes destiny. More specifically:

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.

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