Is Alpha School for real?

Alpha School claims that students can master academics in two AI-powered hours a day, equaling the achievement at elite schools, writes Robert Pondiscio. He wants it to be the "educational breakthrough" we need. But he wonders: Is Alpha School for real?

In an open letter, he urges Alpha founders MacKenzie Price and Joe Liemandt to "tone down the rhetoric" and avoid "triumphalism, certainty, and over-confidence." Alpha needs to let independent researchers evaluate its claims, Pondiscio writes.

"Yes, Alpha has welcomed media visits and shared more data than many educational startups ever do," he writes. However, "researchers still cannot independently reconstruct" Alpha's "signature claim, that students learn '2.6 times faster' than expected." They need to be able to analyze that figure, test alternative explanations and ask how expected growth is defined.

Who are the students? Does the rapid progress come from Alpha’s program or from its appeal to already strong, motivated families who can afford $40k+ tuition? Will “two-hour learning” work in regular public or lower-cost settings, not just in Alpha’s well-funded private campuses with extra incentives and guides?

Pondiscio also questions Alpha's claim students should get through academics as quickly as possible to get on to "life skills" and personal projects. "Literature, history, mathematics, science, music, art, and the disciplined pursuit of knowledge are not mere hurdles to clear before children arrive at the rewarding part of their education," he writes. "For many, they are the rewarding part."

School isn't just a "content-delivery system," he writes. School is "an enduring social practice that persists . . . because generations of people have found value in gathering children together to learn alongside one another under the guidance of adults. That habit encompasses academic instruction, certainly, but also routines, relationships, responsibilities, and the gradual formation of citizens."

Perhaps Alpha can do that while also improving academic learning, Pondiscio writes. "But that case still needs to be made."

Natalie Wexler thinks Alpha's "AI-assisted tutoring works best for math, and maybe science, where learning proceeds in a more clearly hierarchical, sequential fashion." She has doubts about literature and history, and hasn't been able to get Alpha to answer her questions.

Do Alpha students read whole books? Wexler has seen no evidence they do. Do they have time to discuss what they read with classmates? Students need practice in "articulating and defending their ideas, as well as listening to arguments that go in a different direction and learning how to engage in civil disagreement," she writes. They should be able to share the experience of reading with other humans.

Wexler wasn't allowed to access the school's proprietary program, AlphaWrite, but caught a glimpse in an Alpha promotional video. It was based on an exercise in her book, The Writing Revolution, but didn't embed the activity in the curriculum. She has questions: "Do they write essays? Research papers? Does any human being read them?"

Alpha seems to limit human interaction to its afternoon "life skills" workshops, rather than "integrating it into academic learning," writes Wexler. Efficiency isn't everything, she writes. "Learning to bounce around ideas about academic topics with one’s teacher and fellow students may require something other than the shortest path to acquiring information."

Wendy writes about her first four weeks as a "guide" at an Alpha school's summer program.

She homeschooled her two older children, helped a microschool develop an accelerated math program and worked as a public-school teacher for 10 years, before discovering Alpha through her doctoral program, Wendy writes. "At the same time I was also looking for a school for my now 4 year old."

"Being a guide is incredibly rewarding," Wendy writes. Students "come in almost completely dependent on adults to transmit knowledge to them and leave as independent thinkers and problem solvers, eager to show off their new skills to others."

She thinks Alpha is "the future of education."

Like Pondiscio, I'd be happy to see Alpha's model validated, especially if it doesn't just work for the children of the highly educated and affluent. But I've seen so many fads in education. Alpha needs to be confident enough to Wexler and others see how it teaches reading, writing and social studies.