Colleen Hroncich
In most areas of life, when something isn’t working, we look for a better option. In K–12 education, though, children are assigned to public schools based on where they live—and if that school isn’t a good fit, the child is generally seen as the problem. School choice is changing that by expanding access to alternative learning environments. But educational freedom changes lives only if parents and teachers know what options exist, which is why Cato’s Friday Feature highlights the schools, policies, and organizations bringing those choices within reach.
Elizabeth Dean, a high school teacher turned instructional coach in Fairfax County, Virginia, was researching student voice and leadership in secondary schools for her dissertation when she learned about the Acton Academy network. As soon as she realized one was opening right down the street from where she and her family lived, she stopped what she was doing and learned all she could about it.
“I was very intrigued by the model and excited that it was something that maybe my own kids could go to,” she recalls. Her oldest daughter was about to enter kindergarten, so they put down a deposit at The Village School and figured they’d make the logistics work.
The logistics didn’t work. She told the school leaders she’d check back in two years when both of her kids were in school, and transportation would be simpler. “Two years later, when my younger daughter was entering kindergarten, and my oldest was about to be in second grade, we joined as a family,” she says. After another couple of years, she learned the school was leaving the Acton network and becoming independent. “They shared that they had plans to open a high school, which is really my sweet spot and my area of expertise,” Elizabeth says. “And that’s when I decided to join the team. I was ready for a new challenge.”
She started as a middle school guide, which was important to help her understand the school’s model. Elizabeth now serves as head of learning, supporting the learning design across three mixed-stage studios, pre‑K through eighth grade. She’s also helping build the new high school program, which is slated to launch in fall 2028.
For Elizabeth, the move from a large public school system to a small microschool was a dramatic change. “We make our own rules so we can kind of do whatever,” she says, describing the flexibility of a small independent environment. But the work itself felt familiar: as an instructional coach, she had helped educators pursue many of the same goals The Village School now puts into practice. “I’ve really enjoyed kind of seeing how it manifests in such different environments,” she adds.
Today, The Village School serves 75 learners from pre‑K through eighth grade in three mixed-age studios. Mixed-age learning is central to the model, in part because it gives older students meaningful opportunities to lead. Elizabeth recently saw a middle schooler ask a five-year-old to play soccer when he saw the younger child struggling to say goodbye to his dad. “They really take that leadership responsibility to heart,” she says.
The school is mastery-based rather than grade-based and gives learners considerable ownership over academics. Mornings include time to set individual daily or weekly goals before diving into reading, math, research, or passion projects. During the morning session, kids may be pulled into small groups to work with a math or reading specialist. Afternoons tend to feature collaborative project work, including middle school science that rotates each year among chemistry, biology, and physics.
The youngest studio, pre‑K through first grade, focuses on foundational skills and emphasizes frequent communication between guides and parents. Older students use a badge plan that serves as their learning roadmap as they work toward their goals. While the youngest studio has more typical parent-teacher (guide) conferences, students in second grade and above lead their own twice-yearly “journey reviews” with parents. “The guide is there, but the learner is running the show,” Elizabeth explains.
The leadership focus permeates the school. Learners help create studio contracts, run community meetings, lead school tours, participate in hiring interviews, and give peer feedback on one another’s learning plans. “A really fun part of working here at the Village School is that listening to young people and their ideas is really woven into every day versus like a special extra thing that maybe it would have been in my previous roles,” Elizabeth notes. “We could make rules, but it’s more powerful when they do it.”
One notable example came when the school’s leadership team was trying to decide how to handle artificial intelligence. Rather than simply drafting a policy for students, the adults turned the project over to the middle schoolers. Students spent six weeks researching AI, meeting with an AI policy expert, interviewing people who use it professionally, and creating a handbook for other young people. They then wrote the school’s AI guidelines and revisited them months later as the technology evolved. In addition to being a great learning experience, they “were more comprehensive and made a better policy than we would have,” Elizabeth says, “which was no surprise to us.”
The students’ work eventually reached beyond the school as two middle schoolers and their guide presented their experience at a teacher conference in Washington, DC. “They are just way more capable than the world gives them credit for,” Elizabeth says.
Although The Village School is “a microschool by design” and doesn’t want to become a large school, school leaders hope it can influence students beyond its enrollment. The goal, Elizabeth explains, is to become a place where educators from many kinds of schools can find ideas for giving students more ownership. “Connection and collaboration with other schools is really important to us,” Elizabeth says. “We really want to be a bridge. We don’t want to be an island.”
