Writing about the challenge of defining science fiction, Booker and Thomas (2009) conclude that most fans of sci-fi simply know it when they read or watch it. For nearly a century, education has suffered under a misguided urge to define, quantify, and predict everything from what makes a successful school to how to attract and retain the best teachers and to the ultimate goal of 100% proficiency by our students (including the daunting task of quantifying "proficiency," or even "excellence").

So my experience at Wellford Academy confirms for me again—as I have taught in public high school for 18 years and spent the past 10 years visiting a wide variety of schools as a teacher educator—that the only way to know what makes a school effective, even great, is you know it when you see it—and not something that can be fairly defined by any of the many and misleading numbers we assign to our schools.

What, then, can we learn from Wellford Academy?

First, for all the things I find successful and admirable about the school (see below), this school is not evidence of what other schools should do or be since Wellford Academy is, ironically like all schools, unique because of the students who walk into the building each day. The main lesson that we should embrace is that each school has its own purpose that begins with the children it serves, not a Common Core of standards, not a test, not a mission determined by adults and imposed onto those children.

And that is what I want to highlight at the outset. This school has one common element at its core: Students. Wellford Academy is a powerful example of what student-centered education is and should be.

In the science, math, social studies, and 4-year-old, pre-K classrooms I visited, elementary children are all active, self-motivated, collaborative, engaged. The classrooms are all characterized by small groups of students able and allowed to work independently with the teacher as an authoritative coach.

Movement and talk are the norms of the classrooms.

So the next lesson is clear: School should be about students first, not standards, or tests.

The next most powerful message I discovered is the importance of the teachers. The classrooms I visited tended to have more than one adult involved with students, and while the classes are brilliantly student-centered, there is no doubt that each classroom is orchestrated by a patient and expert teacher; in short, each classroom at Wellford Academy is unique just as the school is necessarily unique from other elementary schools.

Teachers are effective when they are compassionate, patient, expert, and experienced, and, most of all, when they are provided the teaching conditions needed to be effective. Possibly most important in that formula is when the administration treats that faculty with respect and honors the professional autonomy of the teachers.

Although not to complete what I saw as successful at this schools, I want to end with a final lesson: The role of technology in high-poverty schools.

I am a vocal and frequent skeptic about the allure of technology in education (I am steadfast in my call to buy all students numerous book a year instead of iPads), but my experience at Wellford Academy revealed to me that it is possible to integrate technology as a tool within a school mission that remains focused on the child.

I watched teachers negotiate a wide range of uses for smart boards (including small group stations in which the children used the smart boards and computers) as well as elementary students working effectively and seamlessly with iPads.

The lesson? Technology is a tool, and potentially a powerful tool, but not the answer to the challenges facing public schools. Without the student-centered focus or the professional autonomy of the teachers and the collaborative nature of the school's administration, the technology investments at this school would likely be a tragic waste of funding.

Is this school a miracle, perfect? Not at all.

This school is, however, a real-world example of what Alfie Kohn suggested we use to guide our decisions about good schools in "What to Look for in a Classroom" (1996)—and notice from Kohn's chart, he acknowledges that it is imperative we are in the school and not mesmerized by numbers.

As discouraging as this is to admit, the school administration and faculty at Wellford Academy are brave—brave for making choices that aren't popular (choosing a very limited amount of homework for the children, which research supports but parents often misunderstand) and brave for creating a student-centered school with a professional and respectful environment for the teachers.

In 2012, from the White House to State Houses all across the U.S., political initiatives and public sentiment are poised to destroy everything that is right at Wellford Elementary. The current climate of education reform forces schools to choose between doing what is mandated and what is right because what is mandated is wrong.

The prevailing solutions for education reform (posed without regard to the problems) include more measuring, labeling, and ranking of schools, teachers, and children, a process that has never worked and never will.

And the people who are leading that charge against schools, teachers, and children have one glaring thing in common: They have never taught.

One afternoon in a school like Wellford Academy (and they exist all across the U.S.) would be a great place to start for that to change.

Reference

Booker, M. K., & Thomas, A. (2009). The science fiction handbook. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.