The establishment of a competitive, meritocratic and engaging culture inside the educational system is one of the crucial elements that will determine not only its survival but also its evolution as a vault of social progress and cultural elevation. Within this frame, mechanisms that can establish new relationships for excellence and innovation inside educational organizations are examined and therefore these can become future gnomons. A correlation of data from a three-year institution award records, provided by the Greek Ministry of Education, is being attempted, in order to mine information about the specific characteristics of the eminent institutions. The gain of similar practices for the school community is doublefold: at first, it measures accurately enough, on a scientific basis, the impact and progressiveness on the community and secondly it safely sketches its future status by projecting on the most popular and easily implemented features. In the meantime, there is a growing discussion on how these radical changes could be assimilated by the majority of schools, if one imposes them in a top-down policy or if one awaits until they emerge from a cooperative and social responsible action of the school unit level. A new parameter in the idea of excellence is the newly established pilot-experimental schools, which operate already in a completely novel institutional environment. Among the objectives of the ministry of education is to confide in them a major role, that of "locomotives of excellence", throughout the whole country. The idea of "excellence", though quite old, has been severely criticized by members of the community. It is the duty of a research to assess the contemporary role of that notion in education, defining its strengths and weaknesses.