Alpha School replaces teachers with AI. Is the future of education here?

Recent developments in generative artificial intelligence have educators from elementary to university seemingly fighting an uphill battle as they struggle to manage students’ dependence on the technology. Meanwhile, one company has decided to fully embrace the new tools. However, critics question whether replacing teachers with AI is worth the risk.

How does Alpha School work?

Alpha School is an AI-powered private school that was founded in 2014 by educational podcaster and 2 Hour Learning founder MacKenzie Price and software and private equity billionaire Joe Liemandt. Despite being around for more than a decade, Alpha’s recent “rise has coincided with technological leaps in what artificial intelligence can do,” said CNN. The company has several branches across the country, with plans to expand.

Students typically start the day with a group activity that introduces a life skill, before sitting down in front of “laptops, plug-in headsets or even virtual reality sets to learn academics through an AI tutor,” said CNN. The program’s two-hour curriculum includes “four 30-minute sessions in math, science, social studies and language,” and “20 minutes of additional learning concepts, like test-taking skills.”

The schools do not have traditional teachers; they employ “human guides” who do not “manage grades or curriculum,” but can offer “specialized teaching, like handwriting,” said CNN. They do not need postgraduate or educational degrees to work for Alpha. Last year, the school reported serving 200 K-8th-grade students and another 50 high school students, with plans to expand to dozens of locations, said The New York Times. Tuition ranges from $10,000 to $75,000 a year.

During a visit to Alpha School’s Austin, Texas, campus in September, Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the school had great potential, calling it an “exemplary” case of what tech can do for American education. “Harnessing AI thoughtfully will be critical to expanding opportunity and preparing students for tomorrow’s workforce,” she said. The school’s co-founders say there is strong interest in their system, which has “gained favor among advocates of expanded school choice and alternative learning,” said CNN.

Is the program effective?

Despite McMahon’s stamp of approval, the AI-driven program has attracted growing criticism. An increasing number of families have chosen to leave the school’s Brownsville, Texas, campus, said Wired. That has not stopped Alpha’s leaders from “pointing to Brownsville as an example” of how 2 Hour Learning can “succeed in communities with low SES,” meaning socioeconomic status. More than a dozen former employees, students and parents told Wired “what they expected from Alpha School wasn’t what it delivered.”

Former guides, “many of whom requested anonymity because they fear negative consequences,” say Alpha’s educational philosophy was “driven by software metrics and, sometimes, Liemandt’s whims,” said Wired. Alpha wanted to “prepare students for a hypercompetitive ‘late capitalism, dog-eat-dog’ environment,” said one guide to the outlet.

Experts say there is “little outside scrutiny” of Alpha’s model and “how successful it really is at teaching children,” said CNN. A major concern is that Alpha refuses to “allow any independent research to evaluate the claims or to really scrutinize what’s going on from disinterested parties,” said Victor Lee, an associate professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, to CNN. That behavior “sort of implies there’s something to hide.”