This announcement made me feel tired and sad. I want nice, normal public schools for all kids with nice, normal teachers. I want good, easy to use curriculum materials, and teachers who are supported and trained in basic techniques that work, and kids from different backgrounds, and some arts and crafts and fun activities, and reasonable basic discipline. I want my kids learning from and with humans all day long, with all the ups and downs that comes with that. I do not need education reimagined. I do not need every minute optimized and differentiated. Most especially, I do not need a new app.
While I probably know some parents who are intrigued by an alpha school model, I know a whole lot more parents like me who want nice, normal public schools and who don’t want our kids staring at screens to do their learning. (NYC parents just got a huge victory in official screen time recommendations from the DOE - parents were LOUD about this. Guess what they weren’t loudly demanding? Better apps.) One of my kids gets headaches after about a half hour of screen time - “good” or “bad” screen time, doesn’t matter. She has her whole life ahead of her to be forced to look at screens for hours every day, but she doesn’t need to start at 8 years old.
You write that we don’t know what alpha school is - a smart rhetorical move that makes it harder to criticize your decision - but man, their marketing team sure knows how to get to the top of my feed, so I’m pretty sure I know something about it, and the model leaves me entirely cold and creeped out. I hope you’re right that there will be upsides for your advocacy work, but I am skeptical. In my experience school leaders are much more likely to import the packaging of an education idea (a flashy AI powered app! “Disrupting the paradigm”! Rebranding teachers!) rather than its core content. So, yeah: tired and sad.
I understand all of the hesitation about Alpha's model, because it was me 10 months ago. I started consulting out of curiosity, but I stayed because there's actually a there, there.
I didn't get into it in my post, but the life skills part of the Alpha school day (which is the majority of the day) emphasizes social, emotional, and character development. Kids are pursuing individual development goals with support from their peers and holding group town halls. I would need at least a thousand words to describe it well. But it's real, and it's why people who've been in Alpha schools don't feel like children's development as humans is being shortchanged.
I also know these things are very hard to believe unless you've seen them with your own eyes. I'm up against the fact that I can't bring people into Alpha schools fast enough for them to understand how much of a school day actually goes to developing students as people. But I'll try to see what I can do to explain that whenever I get around to writing more.
And as I say in the piece, I still want all the things I always wanted for kids in public schools (and I'm still raising a kid in a local public school). Excellent education, knowledge building and book-rich curriculum, healthy food in the cafeteria, well-trained and well-supported teachers who all earn fair pay for their market (and some teachers still don't), plenty of time for recess in elementary grades, arts, music, and theater classes, intentional family engagement, support for kids who want to go into trades instead of college, and so much more.
I have spent the last two years coming to terms with the fact that my best advocacy was not moving many of those things forward. Much is broken in K-12 education, and EdReform and state leadership are on the list. All of that was making me really, really, really tired.
Now I'm doing something that feels like it has real potential. I don't have a crystal ball to know what the future holds for education, I'm simply going to do my level best to advance kids' learning outcomes in whatever space I occupy.
Thanks for the good-natured comment. I knew I would get my share of mean-spirited comments by sharing my choice to do work with Alpha. But there have been far fewer than I expected, even from those who are Alpha-hesitant. Again, I can completely relate to that hesitance. It was 2025 Me.
I think I have had to come to terms with the fact that adults don't have one vision for educational excellence. The idea of my kid being on an app for a few hours a day for her core "optimally differentiated" educational content will just always make me nauseous - that will not ever change, no matter how many more think pieces come across my feed, and no matter who tells me Alpha is better than I think it is or who offers to give me a tour. But I can come to terms with the fact that some other parents don't have that same gut feeling. I can't comprehend it, honestly, but I can accept it as reality. And I don't mind as long as Alpha school remains a private or even charter school that is a choice some people can make if it appeals to them.
What makes me deeply nervous is the fact that Alpha school is very explicitly trying to bring its model whole-scale into public schools at the speed of light. (See today's NYTimes article, which did not shed a flattering light on the organization). They are a start-up, they want some crazy growth every year, they've got a slick marketing team, and they want my taxpayer money. And I think that is wrong. I understand and share your frustration at feeling ineffective in ed reform. I spend a lot of time going to meetings and saying the same things over and over and it's tough to keep up the energy for it. But I am seeing incremental change, so I'm going to keep doing the best I can to push for nice, normal public schools in the small role I have as a parent advocate who does this stuff in her free time, because I really think most parents want nice, normal public schools, and it's certainly what I want. And I will continue to resist anyone from the ed tech world who claims to have "solved" education and wants to sell their product to public schools. But thank you for your thoughtful reply and I hope my pessimism turns out to be unfounded.
The thing I love about this, is the kids are learning via a scientifically vetted process. They learn at their own pace...which is fast when they are in the zone of proximal development...and they aren't strapped with hours of homework each evening.
Do you honestly think children sitting in front of a screen for two hours, clicking through gamified lessons is the best way to learn? Tech bros have been selling lies for well over a decade and it is sad to see administrators fall for it.
The results? You mean the 100% internal data and metrics borne of a proprietary black box algorithm that cannot be audited? If you believe those, I have a lovely Bay Area bridge to sell you, too.
Factor in the tawdry $1000 cash prizes for kids meeting benchmarks, and the whole affair is pedagogically (and morally) bankrupt.
Karen, I have to admit to a visceral negative reaction to Alpha Schools. AI in the classroom is a scourge. In my experience, anything that students use AI to do is a skill they don't learn for themselves.
So assuming that bias, I'd be really curious to know what these two hours of screen time consist of; if the rest of the day is composed of all this valuable, collaborative, project-based work and developing life skills, then why not just make that the focus of the entire school day? What I suspect—and it's possible I'm wrong—is that students' screen time at Alpha is how they're assessed based on skills and knowledge they ostensibly build during that same period. What they miss is working alongside other students in that step of their day, and interacting meaningfully with a teacher who can not only scaffold for each kid, but can develop positive and nuanced relationships with each one, too. That seems like a much harder task when you're a "guide" interacting with a student who has headphones on, facing a screen.
I know, for sure, that there are myriad problems without easy solutions in public school; many of those are caused by leadership at the state level! But one really positive step we've taken in the last few years is to start to dispense with a lot of technology. My high school English students handwrite most things now; it's quite rare that we even open a Chromebook. We'll probably have bell-to-bell cell phone bans within a few years. So why on Earth, when we know how damaging educational technology, from smart boards to smart phones, has been to our students' attention spans, creativity, and ability to critically think, would we ever put our faith in something as metastatic as artificial intelligence, a technology that billionaire bros want to get into the classroom so they can hook children on their version of it?
This is a big, meaty comment with many embedded questions, and I'm sure I'm not going to answer all of them, but a few things:
Check out but note number 3. Alpha students don't spend time on chatbots as part of their learning experience. Carl Hendrick, my colleague at Alpha, has been an important voice on the risk of cognitive offloading when students use AI for lesson work.
The linked “more information” content does answer a lot of your questions. Give it a whirl.
Lastly, I completely empathize with the doubts about AI in education. My piece could have been subtitled "How I Was Humbled by AI and Learned That It Can, in Fact, Change the Game for EdTech." I don't expect everyone to see it that way because you haven't gone on my learning journey. But it is, in fact, my conclusion.
Whats the research on any of this though? Based on the new NYT article - you guys are teaching affluent kids without any serious issues and push out children that do have issues. That is an extremely easy educational target. Maybe you are banking on the idea that only the highly educated will be left when AI takes over most of society? What's the real end game here?
Very interesting! You are correct on many fronts. I went in to work with my high achieving dyslexic student this morning in her public elementary school only to find that the sole interventionist for the school, rather than pivot and take a 4th grade class in a pinch, decided with six months left to go in a 30 year career, to buy out her contract and leave. News like that has a chilling effect. Our little community CANNOT tolerate loss like that, and I fear that many schools are in the same position. I will look at Alpha. I also have questions about the handwriting instruction and how a school like Alpha handles the needs of students like the ones I serve.
Love this piece. We started looking into alpha for my youngest last. She did a shadow and was offered admission. Then I caved and chose the more traditional path. Now she’s in month 2 and very underwhelmed by the rigor and limited student agency. Now we are back in the application process and have added my 9th grader to the mix. So grateful to read someone I personally trust on these topics to give it a thumbs up!
Wow, as you suspected, I’m surprised! I have a ton of respect for you and your work, so your involvement with Alpha makes me intrigued to learn more about what they’re doing. Please keep us updated! On face value, learning from screens and having no teachers makes me skeptical. But, “book-rich, knowledge-rich” is something I can get behind. Can’t wait to hear more!
I would suggest checking out the linked reading about Alpha and its school day. Students actually spend the majority of their time in a life skills block, which is highly social (esp student to student) and often designed with social-emotional and character-development in mind. Picture students hosting grade level town halls, etc.
No child should be a beta tester for tech bros pushing their fantasy of what education should be. You said yourself this is a startup. This is nothing more than a new tech company pretending to be a school. And the children are going to be the ones who have their learning compromised while Alpha School works out the kinks in their program.
I’m curious to hear more about how it is book rich and knowledge rich. What is being taught that you consider knowledge? It sounds like some good reading differentiation is happening, which is great, but I’d put that in the skills category rather than knowledge. And how is love of reading being cultivated? Are there children reading books by choice? I’m assuming there are a lot of books (book rich implies this), but it’s one thing to have books and quite another to have students reading them at a high level. And, have you read Maryanne Wolf? I’m curious to hear your thoughts about her research that shows that what you learn to read on (screens vs paper) changes the reading architecture that is built in your brain.
This is pure screenwashing PR optics — nothing more. She is being paid a king’s ransom to put a thin veneer of analog lipstick on a big fat digital pig.
I am also highly skeptical. But just wanted to point out that the title (and question request) was not at all answered in the piece. Curious that I’ve had no response!
The curriculum design is characteristic of the knowledge-building curriculum category.
I write about such curricula often (see my pieces on Louisiana and Tennessee's gains from their use, for example). The Knowledge Matters campaign has a lot of website content dedicated to explaining them. https://knowledgematters.org/curriculum-directory/
Interesting! Who is delivering these curricula to students? I’m curious how they fit into Alpha’s day. I thought there was two hours of AI tutoring and then project time with guides instead of teachers?
I think this makes sense. When I think of generative AI, I think of creating great prompts. Great prompts require knowledge and discernment. My take is that we've done a poor job on delivering knowledge to students-- thus the cheating and other issues. Had students more knowledge and vocabulary, my gut tells me they'd use AI as a tool to augment ideas-- not create them. My caveat is more developmental-- at what stage of education to use it; whether it follows a classical education trajectory and comes into play in middle school or later. At the elementary level, I believe we need to focus on knowledge and vocabulary, although there are a few case uses for AI delivery systems that we employ for a few things. What I'm also wondering about is if there are any competitive vendors to NWEA who are creating an adaptive knowledge and vocabulary-centered assessment that measures what a student knows as opposed to skills.
So glad to hear you are at Alpha! My son is in the inaugural Alpha Founders School. I’m delighted they have read books that actually interest him.
OMG! Small world. How is he enjoying his Founders School experience?
This announcement made me feel tired and sad. I want nice, normal public schools for all kids with nice, normal teachers. I want good, easy to use curriculum materials, and teachers who are supported and trained in basic techniques that work, and kids from different backgrounds, and some arts and crafts and fun activities, and reasonable basic discipline. I want my kids learning from and with humans all day long, with all the ups and downs that comes with that. I do not need education reimagined. I do not need every minute optimized and differentiated. Most especially, I do not need a new app.
While I probably know some parents who are intrigued by an alpha school model, I know a whole lot more parents like me who want nice, normal public schools and who don’t want our kids staring at screens to do their learning. (NYC parents just got a huge victory in official screen time recommendations from the DOE - parents were LOUD about this. Guess what they weren’t loudly demanding? Better apps.) One of my kids gets headaches after about a half hour of screen time - “good” or “bad” screen time, doesn’t matter. She has her whole life ahead of her to be forced to look at screens for hours every day, but she doesn’t need to start at 8 years old.
You write that we don’t know what alpha school is - a smart rhetorical move that makes it harder to criticize your decision - but man, their marketing team sure knows how to get to the top of my feed, so I’m pretty sure I know something about it, and the model leaves me entirely cold and creeped out. I hope you’re right that there will be upsides for your advocacy work, but I am skeptical. In my experience school leaders are much more likely to import the packaging of an education idea (a flashy AI powered app! “Disrupting the paradigm”! Rebranding teachers!) rather than its core content. So, yeah: tired and sad.
I understand all of the hesitation about Alpha's model, because it was me 10 months ago. I started consulting out of curiosity, but I stayed because there's actually a there, there.
I didn't get into it in my post, but the life skills part of the Alpha school day (which is the majority of the day) emphasizes social, emotional, and character development. Kids are pursuing individual development goals with support from their peers and holding group town halls. I would need at least a thousand words to describe it well. But it's real, and it's why people who've been in Alpha schools don't feel like children's development as humans is being shortchanged.
I also know these things are very hard to believe unless you've seen them with your own eyes. I'm up against the fact that I can't bring people into Alpha schools fast enough for them to understand how much of a school day actually goes to developing students as people. But I'll try to see what I can do to explain that whenever I get around to writing more.
And as I say in the piece, I still want all the things I always wanted for kids in public schools (and I'm still raising a kid in a local public school). Excellent education, knowledge building and book-rich curriculum, healthy food in the cafeteria, well-trained and well-supported teachers who all earn fair pay for their market (and some teachers still don't), plenty of time for recess in elementary grades, arts, music, and theater classes, intentional family engagement, support for kids who want to go into trades instead of college, and so much more.
I have spent the last two years coming to terms with the fact that my best advocacy was not moving many of those things forward. Much is broken in K-12 education, and EdReform and state leadership are on the list. All of that was making me really, really, really tired.
Now I'm doing something that feels like it has real potential. I don't have a crystal ball to know what the future holds for education, I'm simply going to do my level best to advance kids' learning outcomes in whatever space I occupy.
Thanks for the good-natured comment. I knew I would get my share of mean-spirited comments by sharing my choice to do work with Alpha. But there have been far fewer than I expected, even from those who are Alpha-hesitant. Again, I can completely relate to that hesitance. It was 2025 Me.
I think I have had to come to terms with the fact that adults don't have one vision for educational excellence. The idea of my kid being on an app for a few hours a day for her core "optimally differentiated" educational content will just always make me nauseous - that will not ever change, no matter how many more think pieces come across my feed, and no matter who tells me Alpha is better than I think it is or who offers to give me a tour. But I can come to terms with the fact that some other parents don't have that same gut feeling. I can't comprehend it, honestly, but I can accept it as reality. And I don't mind as long as Alpha school remains a private or even charter school that is a choice some people can make if it appeals to them.
What makes me deeply nervous is the fact that Alpha school is very explicitly trying to bring its model whole-scale into public schools at the speed of light. (See today's NYTimes article, which did not shed a flattering light on the organization). They are a start-up, they want some crazy growth every year, they've got a slick marketing team, and they want my taxpayer money. And I think that is wrong. I understand and share your frustration at feeling ineffective in ed reform. I spend a lot of time going to meetings and saying the same things over and over and it's tough to keep up the energy for it. But I am seeing incremental change, so I'm going to keep doing the best I can to push for nice, normal public schools in the small role I have as a parent advocate who does this stuff in her free time, because I really think most parents want nice, normal public schools, and it's certainly what I want. And I will continue to resist anyone from the ed tech world who claims to have "solved" education and wants to sell their product to public schools. But thank you for your thoughtful reply and I hope my pessimism turns out to be unfounded.
This is what school should/could look like.
The thing I love about this, is the kids are learning via a scientifically vetted process. They learn at their own pace...which is fast when they are in the zone of proximal development...and they aren't strapped with hours of homework each evening.
Do you honestly think children sitting in front of a screen for two hours, clicking through gamified lessons is the best way to learn? Tech bros have been selling lies for well over a decade and it is sad to see administrators fall for it.
Their results speak for themselves.
Then the fact that they can spend the afternoons on projects is highly valuable.
But do the results speak for themselves? NYTimes has an interesting article out today all about Alpha School.
The results? You mean the 100% internal data and metrics borne of a proprietary black box algorithm that cannot be audited? If you believe those, I have a lovely Bay Area bridge to sell you, too.
Factor in the tawdry $1000 cash prizes for kids meeting benchmarks, and the whole affair is pedagogically (and morally) bankrupt.
Translation: the kids are being experimented on by Silicon Valley profiteers masquerading as “learning scientists.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/us/alpha-school-ai-education-parents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.K1E.zdZJ.V86b64tQefD5&smid=nytcore-android-share
Yea - it can sort of help affluent kids based on this. Long way to go....
Wow. The most $ellouty $ellout of all $ellouts.
Karen, I have to admit to a visceral negative reaction to Alpha Schools. AI in the classroom is a scourge. In my experience, anything that students use AI to do is a skill they don't learn for themselves.
So assuming that bias, I'd be really curious to know what these two hours of screen time consist of; if the rest of the day is composed of all this valuable, collaborative, project-based work and developing life skills, then why not just make that the focus of the entire school day? What I suspect—and it's possible I'm wrong—is that students' screen time at Alpha is how they're assessed based on skills and knowledge they ostensibly build during that same period. What they miss is working alongside other students in that step of their day, and interacting meaningfully with a teacher who can not only scaffold for each kid, but can develop positive and nuanced relationships with each one, too. That seems like a much harder task when you're a "guide" interacting with a student who has headphones on, facing a screen.
I know, for sure, that there are myriad problems without easy solutions in public school; many of those are caused by leadership at the state level! But one really positive step we've taken in the last few years is to start to dispense with a lot of technology. My high school English students handwrite most things now; it's quite rare that we even open a Chromebook. We'll probably have bell-to-bell cell phone bans within a few years. So why on Earth, when we know how damaging educational technology, from smart boards to smart phones, has been to our students' attention spans, creativity, and ability to critically think, would we ever put our faith in something as metastatic as artificial intelligence, a technology that billionaire bros want to get into the classroom so they can hook children on their version of it?
This is a big, meaty comment with many embedded questions, and I'm sure I'm not going to answer all of them, but a few things:
Check out but note number 3. Alpha students don't spend time on chatbots as part of their learning experience. Carl Hendrick, my colleague at Alpha, has been an important voice on the risk of cognitive offloading when students use AI for lesson work.
The linked “more information” content does answer a lot of your questions. Give it a whirl.
Lastly, I completely empathize with the doubts about AI in education. My piece could have been subtitled "How I Was Humbled by AI and Learned That It Can, in Fact, Change the Game for EdTech." I don't expect everyone to see it that way because you haven't gone on my learning journey. But it is, in fact, my conclusion.
Whats the research on any of this though? Based on the new NYT article - you guys are teaching affluent kids without any serious issues and push out children that do have issues. That is an extremely easy educational target. Maybe you are banking on the idea that only the highly educated will be left when AI takes over most of society? What's the real end game here?
Very interesting! You are correct on many fronts. I went in to work with my high achieving dyslexic student this morning in her public elementary school only to find that the sole interventionist for the school, rather than pivot and take a 4th grade class in a pinch, decided with six months left to go in a 30 year career, to buy out her contract and leave. News like that has a chilling effect. Our little community CANNOT tolerate loss like that, and I fear that many schools are in the same position. I will look at Alpha. I also have questions about the handwriting instruction and how a school like Alpha handles the needs of students like the ones I serve.
Super intrigued to see what you and Alpha build together! Congrats!
I'm thrilled to hear that you are part of the team. This shifts my priors and makes me hopeful about the model and it's broader impact.
I saw the article but need to get access!
Love this piece. We started looking into alpha for my youngest last. She did a shadow and was offered admission. Then I caved and chose the more traditional path. Now she’s in month 2 and very underwhelmed by the rigor and limited student agency. Now we are back in the application process and have added my 9th grader to the mix. So grateful to read someone I personally trust on these topics to give it a thumbs up!
Wow, as you suspected, I’m surprised! I have a ton of respect for you and your work, so your involvement with Alpha makes me intrigued to learn more about what they’re doing. Please keep us updated! On face value, learning from screens and having no teachers makes me skeptical. But, “book-rich, knowledge-rich” is something I can get behind. Can’t wait to hear more!
Please let children spend their time talking to human beings.
I would suggest checking out the linked reading about Alpha and its school day. Students actually spend the majority of their time in a life skills block, which is highly social (esp student to student) and often designed with social-emotional and character-development in mind. Picture students hosting grade level town halls, etc.
But aren't they spending at least two hours on computers each day?
No child should be a beta tester for tech bros pushing their fantasy of what education should be. You said yourself this is a startup. This is nothing more than a new tech company pretending to be a school. And the children are going to be the ones who have their learning compromised while Alpha School works out the kinks in their program.
I’m curious to hear more about how it is book rich and knowledge rich. What is being taught that you consider knowledge? It sounds like some good reading differentiation is happening, which is great, but I’d put that in the skills category rather than knowledge. And how is love of reading being cultivated? Are there children reading books by choice? I’m assuming there are a lot of books (book rich implies this), but it’s one thing to have books and quite another to have students reading them at a high level. And, have you read Maryanne Wolf? I’m curious to hear your thoughts about her research that shows that what you learn to read on (screens vs paper) changes the reading architecture that is built in your brain.
This is pure screenwashing PR optics — nothing more. She is being paid a king’s ransom to put a thin veneer of analog lipstick on a big fat digital pig.
I am also highly skeptical. But just wanted to point out that the title (and question request) was not at all answered in the piece. Curious that I’ve had no response!
The curriculum design is characteristic of the knowledge-building curriculum category.
I write about such curricula often (see my pieces on Louisiana and Tennessee's gains from their use, for example). The Knowledge Matters campaign has a lot of website content dedicated to explaining them. https://knowledgematters.org/curriculum-directory/
Interesting! Who is delivering these curricula to students? I’m curious how they fit into Alpha’s day. I thought there was two hours of AI tutoring and then project time with guides instead of teachers?
I think this makes sense. When I think of generative AI, I think of creating great prompts. Great prompts require knowledge and discernment. My take is that we've done a poor job on delivering knowledge to students-- thus the cheating and other issues. Had students more knowledge and vocabulary, my gut tells me they'd use AI as a tool to augment ideas-- not create them. My caveat is more developmental-- at what stage of education to use it; whether it follows a classical education trajectory and comes into play in middle school or later. At the elementary level, I believe we need to focus on knowledge and vocabulary, although there are a few case uses for AI delivery systems that we employ for a few things. What I'm also wondering about is if there are any competitive vendors to NWEA who are creating an adaptive knowledge and vocabulary-centered assessment that measures what a student knows as opposed to skills.