Alpha Schools Concept Changing Classroom with AI
Photo via University of Dayton website
Ava McConnell | Contributing Writer
A chain of private schools has recently caught lots of attention because of their teaching practices, which break many norms of education. This chain is called Alpha School, and they break norms in many ways — including the school’s main emphasis on learning via AI instead of teachers.
Alpha School is a private K–12 school network in the United States founded in 2014, according to its website. The network uses a proprietary instructional model called “2Hour Learning,” which replaces traditional teachers. Using a model that claims to have students learn twice as much in only two hours, Alpha Schools use AI to educate students in core subjects, while having “guides” in the classroom to encourage and mentor students, according to national reports on one of the latest trends in education.
For the remainder of the school day, students attend workshops that cover a variety of subjects, including communication and finance, for example. This model is drastically different from the model of education that the majority of schools in the United States use, which allows teachers to use tools such as context, scaffolding, and feedback in the classroom.
As the Alpha Schools use this new model, some eyebrows are being raised. The reaction comes as some question how the two-hour education model can compare to a teacher’s standard lesson plan.
Through experience as an early childhood education major, Ella Kohrs, a student in the University of Dayton class of 2028, describes lesson plans as “an ideal approach to how everything should go, which teachers can adjust accordingly.” With the speed at which students are learning at the Alpha Schools, Kohrs questions how AI tutors can adjust to the needs of students.
“AI doesn’t know how to pivot and adjust the way a real teacher would in a lesson,” Kohrs said. “Teachers adjust their processes to ensure the success of students in a way that cannot be replicated.”
While this model of education is a point of pride for the chain of schools, it raises some concerns. “Alpha’s self-directed approach can be good for students who are self-motivated, but for others, it may not be a great fit,” says Dr. Treavor Bogard, UD Department of Education chair. In addition to this, Dr. Bogard questions the quality of learning that occurs in the Alpha Schools: “The speed at which the kids learn raises the question of whether this model allows for deep learning. With this, it is also difficult to benchmark how much students are learning.”
With the questions about the effectiveness of Alpha’s education model, there are also concerns about the impact on social development for kids.
“I feel like that takes away from the socialization of school,” says Nick Giunta, an education major set to graduate in 2027. Giunta mentions that social development is a large part of school, especially in earlier grades. Because of Alpha’s model having a strong emphasis on speed and self-direction, Giunta and others in the field of education have major concerns.
“School has a greater impact than going through the motions,” Kohrs said when asked about how schools impact social development. She emphasizes this point using the example of the COVID- 19 pandemic. “Since the pandemic, kids have been struggling from a lack of social development,” which she, Bogard and Giunta see as a concern with the emphasis on technology used at the Alpha Schools.
In a time when AI is gaining more traction, it is being used and will continue to be used in classrooms across the United States.
In the next 25 years, Bogard said he hopes, “AI needs to be ethically embraced,” while also stressing that students and educators should not be too reliant on AI.
“Helping students learn to think with AI is important,” he said, as this allows students to think and even challenge AI, which is crucial because AI can sometimes provide wrong answers. To go along with this, Bogard said, AI can also be a tool for teachers.
“There are a lot more benefits to AI than students and teachers may think,” Kohrs said, noting she believes that AI should be used as a helper in the classroom instead of as a replacement for those in the teaching profession.
AI has a future in the classroom, but how the future plays out is being displayed through the Alpha Schools.