A.I.-Powered School Coming to Orange County

A private school network from Texas that utilizes artificial intelligence so students can “crush academics in just two hours” a day is coming to Orange County. 

Next month, Alpha School Lake Forest is scheduled to open. It will start serving about 25 students in kindergarten through third grade this fall, with plans to add fourth through eighth grade classes by next year. The campus is located within the boundaries of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and will share a facility with Guidepost Montessori. Tuition is $50,000 a year.

Alpha School says it is reimagining education by disrupting the teacher-standing-in-front-of-the-classroom model of instruction embraced by traditional K-12 schools for decades. 

So how does Alpha School work? In simple terms: 

• Students spend two hours in the morning completing personalized academic assignments at a computer with A.I.-powered software and applications. 
• “Guides” — Alpha School’s term for teachers — are present but do not instruct or plan lessons. Instead, they motivate students to meet daily academic goals determined through individualized assessments powered by A.I.
• When academic lessons wrap up, students spend the rest of the school day with peers in workshops learning life skills such as leadership, entrepreneurship, and teamwork. 

Alpha School was started in 2014 by co-founder MacKenzie Price, a mother of two and Stanford University graduate. For Price, Alpha School is deeply personal. She admits she didn’t really enjoy school. “I thought it was very boring,” Price shared in a brief interview earlier this month. But in her words, she knew how to “play the game” to get good grades and advance to an elite college. 

She wanted her children’s schooling experience to be different. When her eldest daughter began to lose her spark of curiosity early on in elementary school, Price recognized the same feeling she once experienced and decided to take action.

Alpha School was born and it’s now expanding under the parent company of 2 Hour Learning, which Price also co-founded. Nationwide, ten Alpha School campuses are slated to open this year including three in California.

Orange County families are already showing an interest in the new Alpha School Lake Forest. On July 10, dozens of prospective parents showed up at a restaurant at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa to learn about the program over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.

At the event, Price spoke about the philosophy of Alpha School and its three promises: that students will love school; that students will complete twice as much academic work in just two hours a day; and that students will learn future life skills. Her hope is students can find the intersection of their passions and talents through school.

Laura Knight was at the event and left impressed. “This model, I love it,” the Huntington Beach mother of three said. Knight said she is looking for something to reignite her eight-year-old daughter’s interest in school, sharing that the soon-to-be third grader has recently become reluctant to attend class at her private Catholic school. 

“I think [Alpha School] has the ability to motivate her and keep that fire and perseverance,” Knight said. “I love the high standards they set for the kids and the students are then able to achieve them.” 

“We’re definitely looking for something different,” Ashley Wolf, another parent at the event, said. The mother of three kids said she feels traditional school wastes a lot of time and instruction could be more efficient.

How does Alpha School use A.I. in instruction?

“We are not the dystopian A.I. robot sitting in the front of the classroom teaching your kids,” Price said when addressing concerns about its A.I.-powered curriculum during the parent information night. “What our kids are instead getting is this one-to-one mastery-based experience where the kids are able to be met exactly where they need [to be].” 

While Alpha School does refer to its A.I. Tutor, it does not use a chatbot in its academic instruction, according to Tasha Arnold, Ed.D., Head of Alpha Schools. “The bottom line is, if we had a chatbot, [students] would all cheat,” Dr. Arnold shared in a July 22 phone interview. Chatbots, and other forms of A.I., can be used during life skills workshops. 

Alpha School said it utilizes A.I. in academics to collect and analyze data to regularly assess students’ progress and to create personalized instruction. 

Here’s how it works: students undergo the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress assessments. A.I. is used to grade the student’s work and then create individualized lesson plans based on Common Core Standards. 

Students log into their dashboard each morning to see what lessons they must complete in English, math, and other subjects. Kindergarten through third graders also work with human reading specialists. Students use the Pomodoro technique, breaking assignments into timed increments, to complete their work. If a student needs more instruction to grasp a math concept, for example, the A.I. will generate a lesson that might include more review. 

“Sometimes the fastest way to go forward is backward,” Price explained, and added, “Competence leads to confidence.” And she emphasized that personalization is key. What might take one student five rounds of assignments to master could take another student half the time, ensuring individuals can work at their own pace.

If a student doesn't understand an assignment, they are encouraged to problem-solve. They can consult with their guide or use available tools from their A.I. applications. They can also file a ticket to speak with an academic specialist via Zoom, Dr. Arnold shared.

A large part of the school’s academic approach is the consistent and ongoing assessment and data collection by A.I. to help "pinpoint exactly where your child might need extra help or advanced challenges."

“One of the things that is phenomenal is that we have so much information about how our kids are doing,” Price said. All that data is vital, according to Dr. Arnold. “It’s imperative to what we do,” she said and noted that parents can access the information any time.

Guides are ‘Magic’

Another imperative element are the adults Alpha School employs to support and motivate students. "Guides are NOT academic teachers - think athletic coaches," reads a promotional flyer. Price calls the guides “magic” and the school's "secret sauce."

“We have transformed the role of the teacher in the classroom, so that instead of having to spend their time writing papers, creating lesson plans, delivering lectures, looking at homework, their focus is completely on motivational and emotional support, maintaining high standards and letting kids know, you are capable, and we're going to help,” Price said at the July 10 event.

Price said she believes educators in the U.S. are generally underappreciated and overworked. At Alpha School, guides earn six figures, according to Price and around 15% come from traditional teaching backgrounds.

Not everyone is comfortable with shifting the focus of teachers and handing the lesson planning and grading over to A.I. “When you have a school that is strictly A.I., it is violating that core precept of the human endeavor and of education,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers’ union, was quoted as saying in a recent New York Times article.

But Price stressed that the guides are able to connect with students in meaningful ways including meeting one-on-one with their students weekly. “Our teachers finally get the chance to make that impact that they all got into this career to do,” Price explained in a recent appearance on KCAL News.

After lessons are completed, students spend the afternoon in their life skills workshops. The workshops vary depending on grade level but can include financial literacy, public speaking, goal-setting, leadership, or entrepreneurship. In one example, kindergartners trained to ride a bike for five miles without stopping. In another workshop, third and fourth graders learned "grit through golfing." Another class of fifth and sixth graders launched a food truck business.

Another important component: there is no homework at Alpha School so evenings are free for other activities. “We want you doing family things together and pursuing other passions,” Dr. Arnold said of the policy.

Does this approach work? The school chain is still relatively new and serves a fraction of the students of a traditional campus making it difficult to measure. Price cites high test scores, telling Fox News Alpha School “classes are in the top 2% in the country.” Its first class of 12 seniors graduated last year. Eleven went on to four-year universities including Stanford, Northeastern, and the University of Texas at Austin, reports the New York Times.

An articulate eight-year-old Alpha School student at the July 10 information night said she loved attending her school in Austin. Her favorite part? Her guide “Car-Car,” better known as Carson. “I like him because he’s funny, generous, and nice, just like me,” she said. She also liked her entrepreneur workshop where she built her own business.

The girl's mother credited Alpha School with helping her daughter come out of her shell. "She's always been really smart but we wanted to find a school that was going to take that smartness and bring it to the next level and not just keep her where she was," the parent said.

Charter School Expansion Hopes

With $50,000 annual tuition, Alpha School is not accessible to many families. It has been working to bring its A.I.-powered lessons and 2-Hour Learning approach to the public school sphere. But it has been met with challenges.

While a virtual charter school using A.I. was approved in Arizona this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education rejected a similar effort stating: “The artificial intelligence instructional model being proposed by this school is untested and fails to demonstrate how the tools, methods and providers would ensure alignment to Pennsylvania academic standards.”

“We’re going to continue working on that and keep trying,” Dr. Arnold said of expanding into charter schools. “We truly believe this is the future of education."