Putting His Ideals to the Test

School to Focus on Founder's 'Smaller is Better' Doctrine

By Kameel Stanley

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Deep Sran's beliefs about the future of education are encapsulated in a bright yellow Mini Cooper with black accent stripes and a stop sign painted on the driver's door.

The compact car, Sran's interpretation of a school bus, is plastered with signs advertising the new school he has founded and sayings that capture his philosophy about learning.

"In education, smaller is BETTER," one reads.

It's part of the package of ideas Sran is trying to promote as he prepares to open Loudoun County's first non-secular private high school.

Sran's Ideal Schools opens Sept. 2 with 11 students and four teachers. Eventually, he hopes to have as many as 60 students.

"We are creating the future of education," said Sran, who until recently was a University of Maryland professor of educational psychology. "Small really does make a difference. ... If you create a small school, you might be able to improve education."

Sran, an Ashburn father of two young girls who has worked as a lawyer and high school teacher, said he realized about 10 years ago that education needed to change. Ideal Schools, he said, seeks to break through the one-size-fits-all approach that many students get in public education.

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Ideal School Principal Deep Sran drives his small car covered with promotional decoration and quotes touting "Smaller is Better." (Gerald Martineau)

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Ideal School Principal Deep Sran in front of the school, nestled in a larger building complex in an industrial-business park. His small car is behind is covered with promotional quotes touting "Smaller is Better." (Gerald Martineau)

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Construction worker William Balderre applies drywall paste to a cabinet in the science room. (Gerald Martineau)

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Ideal School Principal Deep Sran talks with construction superintendent Greg Coleman in in the multi-use area of the school. This area will be kept open and the ceiling will show exposed yellow painted steel trusses and foil faced insulation. (Gerald Martineau)

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A white-suited construction worker attaches insulation to the ceiling of the multi-purpose area of a new school opening in Ashburn. The ceiling will show exposed yellow steel trusses and foil faced insulation. (Gerald Martineau)

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A partially completed classroom designed for the optimum class size of 12 students. (Gerald Martineau)

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"Those ways don't create the idea that learning can be rigorous and fun and comfortable at the same time," said Lorraine Bouchard, the school's assistant principal.

Bouchard is a former public school teacher who in 1986 founded the accredited independent Rainard School in Houston.

Sran has spent several months designing his school, which is in a building near Ashburn's Beaumeade Corporate Park. Construction workers are putting the final touches on the space, which was a blank slate when Sran got it.

The school is designed to have a loft-like feeling, with small classrooms lining the perimeter and an open area in the middle. An upper deck will feature individual study cubes for students.

At Ideal Schools, there won't be more than 12 students to a classroom. Students will be free to learn at their own pace, and teachers will focus on project-based learning, Sran said.

For example, Sran anticipates that students this fall will learn core subject concepts while following the 2008 presidential election.

Technology also will be heavily integrated into the curriculum, which he said will include a science and math program modeled after the one at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County.

Although he describes his school as "high tech," Sran said the curriculum seeks to be well-rounded.

Sran, who graduated from Montgomery Blair High School's math and science magnet program in 1989, said it's important for today's students to have a wide range of skills.

"Students who are not exposed to everything, they're not going to be prepared," Sran said.

The key is to engage students and help them find relevance in what they're learning, and small schools provide that opportunity, he said.

He acknowledged that selling a concept such as Ideal Schools to parents isn't always easy, because many of them aren't comfortable bucking the traditional path to higher education.

Sran said that he thinks Loudoun, with its highly educated, wealthy and tech-savvy population, is the perfect place to roll out this model of schooling and that the parents he has spoken with are enthusiastic about the approach.

"The challenge is that it is a guarded enthusiasm," he said.

Robin Boniface, whose 15-year-old son, Nate, is starting at Ideal Schools this fall, said the decision to enroll him at the nontraditional school was a no-brainer for her.

Boniface, a former vice president of operations for Sprint/Nextel who provides help to start-up businesses, moved her family to Loudoun 11 years ago and began searching for a new school for Nate two years ago.

When he was in public school, Nate got high marks on tests but low overall grades in his courses. His teachers assumed he was impatient to learn and hated school.

Boniface started driving her son to the New School in Fairfax because of its small size, and he has thrived there.

It's about time Loudoun has a school like Sran's, she said.

"I really believe in the school," Boniface said of Ideal Schools. "I just find that public schools are teaching to the test. ... There are special styles that our public school system really doesn't do."

Tagged: education

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