Alpha School has been receiving an incredible amount of media attention recently. In fact, one of my children even asked me about it as part of their researching schools for our grandkids.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s column is a guest post sharing one perspective on its future\u2014a perspective that I happen to share.<\/p>\n
I suspect I\u2019m not the only educator hearing questions about it.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Riley is the founder of Cognitive Resonance<\/a>, dedicated to building human knowledge to stop AI hype:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about Alpha School. If you don\u2019t know what it is, here\u2019s a medley<\/a> of what\u2019s<\/a> been<\/a> written<\/a> about<\/a> it<\/a>. And here\u2019s a link to my latest investigative piece on it<\/a>. Its main pedagogical claim to fame is something they call the \u201ctwo-hour learning\u201d model<\/a>, where they have students spend two hours on a laptop every morning, using various ed-tech products to cover their core academics. In the afternoon, they spend four hours in hands-on, group-based \u201clife skills\u201d workshops.<\/p>\n Structurally, and importantly, I see Alpha School as really three different things:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve worked in education for two decades now and, at times, within the heart of the \u201ced reform\u201d movement that has long championed charter schools and education technology and (more recently) school vouchers. My views have evolved significantly since the start of my career, but because of this experience, I think I can see Alpha School\u2019s future, and it doesn\u2019t look bright.<\/p>\n The private school version of Alpha School has been around for more than a decade and is based in Austin, Texas, where I live. It\u2019s hard to know how many students are enrolled. In August 2025, one report<\/a> quoted an Alpha School official saying there were all of 230 students nationwide, with 150 of them based in Austin (the flagship campus). You will find stories<\/a> suggesting<\/a> they are expanding to \u201c50 campuses nationwide,\u201d but many of these \u201ccampuses\u201d are serving small numbers of kids. I\u2019ve spoken with parents that formerly enrolled their children in Alpha School from across the country, and many describe programs with less than 10 kids.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason the private school is small: It\u2019s very expensive, usually to the tune of $40,000 <\/a>to $75,000<\/a> in annual tuition in many places. Because of this, when students at Alpha School are done with their \u201ctwo hours of learning,\u201d they might physically go swim with Navy SEALs<\/a> or compete for entrepreneurial funding in \u201cAlpha Tank<\/a>\u201d or take a field trip to Poland<\/a>. Obviously, the students attending the private school are coming from the upper stratosphere of the socioeconomic spectrum.<\/p>\n This means Alpha School is very limited in how big it can grow. Its leaders know this, because they\u2019ve also tried to open charter schools under the \u201cUnbound Academy\u201d brand<\/a>. This hasn\u2019t gone well. Their charter applications have been denied<\/a> in multiple states, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Utah. They are, however, trying to grow\u2014at least in Texas\u2014through the use of vouchers<\/a>. How successful they\u2019ll be is debatable. <\/p>\n But they did get chartered in Arizona and opened a school there last year. They promised in their charter to get kids to around 60% proficiency in math and English\/language arts. Educator Dan Meyer did some sleuthing<\/a> and found that in reality: \u201cUnbound Academy projected 60% proficiency in math off a baseline of 34% and ended the year with 10% compared to an Arizona state average of 34%. They projected 65% proficiency in ELA off a baseline of 40% and ended with 28% compared to an Arizona state average of 42%.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only is that below what Alpha\/Unbound promised, it\u2019s also far below Arizona\u2019s statewide average. So the charter school route doesn\u2019t look promising for Alpha Schools, either.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the real growth plan: ed tech. The private school\u2019s \u201cprincipal\u201d is Joe Liemandt<\/a>, a billionaire businessman who invests in software. He says<\/a> he wants to reach a billion kids\u2014literally\u2014using AI-driven technology. Toward that end, Alpha has contracted with a few prominent names in the \u201cscience of learning\u201d community that I know well, such as Carl Hendrick. Nowadays, Hendrick claims<\/a> \u201cyou can\u2019t scale good teaching\u201d and also that<\/a> \u201clearning is governed by the same biological laws as digestion.\u201d<\/p>\n This is mystifying. The entire idea behind public education is that every child deserves an education, regardless of background, and that there is a collective social obligation to provide this. Of course, we can scale good teaching, if we choose to invest in it. (I founded a nonprofit organization<\/a> that\u2019s working toward this goal, though I\u2019m no longer working there.) And the idea that learning is like digestion is so far afield from what we know about cognition<\/a> that I don\u2019t know what to say other than good luck with selling that notion to any teacher with classroom experience.<\/p>\n What Hendrick really means is that teaching does not scale the way that technology can. That\u2019s true. But humans prefer learning from other humans\u2014it\u2019s how we\u2019ve culturally evolved<\/a>. [Editor\u2019s note: see Yes, It Is Possible To \u201cScale Good Teaching.\u201d<\/a>] Ed-tech evangelists simply cannot wrap their minds around this, so we keep repeating the same story over and over, whether it\u2019s Alt School<\/a> or Summit Learning Platform<\/a> or Khanmigo<\/a>, all of which have not lived up anywhere near to their originators\u2019 lofty goals.<\/p>\n I predict Alpha School will one day join them. It\u2019s not going to transform education, nor is it an aspirational model for the future. It rests on profoundly mistaken ideas about what education is for and what purpose schools serve in society.<\/p>\n Thanks to Ben for sharing his thoughts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alpha School has been receiving an incredible amount of media attention recently. In fact, one of my children even asked me about it as part of their researching schools for our grandkids.\n
\nToday\u2019s column is a guest post sharing one perspective on its future\u2014a perspective that I happen to share.
\nI suspect I\u2019m not the only educator hearing questions about it.
\n Alpha School Is Really Three Different Things Benjamin Riley is the founder of Cognitive Resonance, dedicated to building human knowledge to stop AI hype:
\nLet\u2019s talk about Alpha School. If you don\u2019t know what it is, here\u2019s a medley of what\u2019s been written about it. And here\u2019s a link to my latest investigative piece on it. Its main pedagogical claim to fame is something they call the \u201ctwo-hour learning\u201d model, where they have students spend two hours on a laptop every morning, using various ed-tech products to cover their core academics. In the afternoon, they spend four hours in hands-on, group-based \u201clife skills\u201d workshops.
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