Redefining School in the 21st Century

Because it's about time, don't you think?

I can’t tell you how many people I see online who think Alpha School is a gimmick, who assume “learning 2X in two hours per day” is nothing but flashy marketing jargon, like pretty wrapping paper for an empty box.

To be honest, I don’t blame them. I appreciate that parents are thinking critically about their kids’ education. (And at one point in my life, I probably would have been one of those skeptics, as well.) But here I am, shouting from the rooftops about “learning 2X in two hours per day.” Because it’s not a gimmicky marketing ploy, not in the slightest.

And I want to give you the full picture.

Recently, I spoke at the Social Innovation Summit on what it means to redefine school in the 21st century. You can watch my talk here, or if you’re an essay enthusiast (I’m assuming you are since you’re reading this!), feel free to keep on scrolling.

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March 30, 1880. Wabash, Indiana.

Think about a small town in the 1800s: bustling streets, busy stores, kids on their way to school, things happening all day long. But as the daylight dwindles, so does human potential. Shops close. People shutter up inside their homes. The only resources for light are candles or kerosene lamps. Once the daylight fades, life just kind of…stops.

That was their reality.

Until one day — March 31, 1880 — everything changed.

It started with a man named Charles Brush. While Thomas Edison was developing the incandescent light bulb in Menlo Park, Charles Brush had a much bigger vision in Wabash. His dream was to light entire cities. And so, at 8 p.m. on March 31st, he lit four arc lights on the county courthouse dome. And in that moment, he flipped a switch. (See what I did there?) Thousands of people flocked to witness this event. Many cried. Others declared it nothing short of a miracle. One newspaper claimed it was so bright you could read a telegram from a block away. The crowd was stunned. It was revolutionary.

After that, things changed quickly. For the first time in history, cities were alive and thriving after dark. Commerce completely transformed. The 24/7 factory system began. We made light-speed progress as to what people could accomplish in a single day. Now, flash forward to today. A lot has changed, right? Commerce, culture, technology, society at large. All except for one thing.

School.

Today’s school system operates roughly the same as it did 150 years ago. In fact, a student from 1880 Wabash, Indiana probably wouldn’t be overly shocked to see the inside of a public school today. Sure, we may not be reading by candlelight anymore, but we still confine kids to desks, have them sit in rows, and learn the same material at the same time at the same pace. And it's no longer working. Advanced students are bored. Students who are behind are left behind and continue to struggle. And the kids in the middle couldn’t care less. It’s showing up in our results. Did you know that only a third of students in the U.S. can read or do math at grade level? We’re experiencing the lowest academic results in the last thirty years. Obviously, this is not a good state. School simply isn’t working anymore.

And you know who is getting the brunt of it?

Teachers.

Out of everyone, teachers have been given the most impossible job. They must take a class of fifteen, twenty, thirty plus kids who are all wildly different, and teach them a grade's worth of curriculum between September and May. How in the world is a teacher supposed to succeed at that? There’s a reason our teachers are leaving the field in droves. They are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.

Finally, one last reason that today’s education system doesn’t make sense: education equality. Visit the poorest school in rural India and the ritziest private school in Connecticut, and you'll see the exact same thing: one teacher leading a group of kids through a standardized curriculum in an age-based classroom. Maybe a nicer building here or there, but generally, all schools look the same. In the 150 years since the start of the Industrial Revolution, nothing has changed in education. School remains stuck in that candlelit period of time.

But there is a chance to flip that switch on education.

The answer is found in two initials: AI.

I’ll be honest: I freaking love AI. It’s the instrument that finally allows us to deliver personalized, adaptive, specific, applicational academics to every single student in the classroom. No matter how advanced they are or how behind they are, we can finally provide personalized tutoring to every single student.

How do I know this?

First, a little background about me. I grew up in the traditional school system. I was good at school (a straight-A student) but I hated school. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Years later, I sent my two daughters to traditional school like everyone else, because that’s just what you do. Almost immediately, I saw how the system negatively impacted them. My girls came home from school bored out of their minds. Not failing, but certainly not engaged. That hit home for me. My girls grew up as the most engaged, curious learners. (Which, by the way, is how every child enters the system!) Watching them lose their passion to learn was the final straw for me. I tried speaking to the principal of our school. After many years of trying to work together and implement change, she finally looked at me and said, “MacKenzie, I totally get you want change, but that’s like trying to steer the Titanic. We just can’t make it happen.”

At that point, I knew I had to leave. Not leave to go to the private school down the street, but leave traditional school behind entirely and find a new model of education.

That’s when I started Alpha School: a school that enables us to provide personalized learning experiences to every student by using AI.

Let me show you how it works.

• In-Depth Academic Assessments

When a new student wants to enroll, we assess where they’re at with their current academic knowledge. And this isn’t your typical assessment. (“Will we place you in Math A or Math B?”) Essentially, this is like conducting a CAT scan of your child’s brain. With the help of AI, we learn exactly what every single student knows and doesn’t know — and therefore, what they need. From there, we can place them in precisely the right level of material and fill any necessary holes of their knowledge.

• Move-At-Your-Own-Pace Education

Having an AI tutor allows students to move at their own pace. For instance, if your child is quick to understand a concept, they can plow ahead in the curriculum. There’s no holding them back. They have the freedom to learn as fast as they are able. If another child needs more time to grasp a concept, they can take all the time they need. They are not rushed forward with the rest of the class, but have the freedom to learn each topic fully, to mastery.

• Real-World Readiness

In the last decade of running Alpha School, I’ve learned something important: parents do not want their kids coming home from school after just two hours. And this is where the magic happens. When you don’t just finish academics in two hours, but crush academics in two hours, then the rest of the day is free to develop other skill sets. Entrepreneurship. Financial literacy. Storytelling. Public speaking. Leadership. Teamwork. Socialization. Grit. Handling failure. Our students get daily opportunities to explore what they’re interested in doing. They develop relevant, real-world life skills on top of sheer academic learning.

• Results, Results, Results

What’s happening as a result of this system?

Academically, our students are learning twice as fast in only two hours a day. Our classes consistently perform in the top 1-2% in the country. The average SAT score of an Alpha high schooler is 1410. In fact, I’d argue there’s not a school out there delivering better academic results.

And life skill development? Our middle schoolers are publishing books. Our elementary students are building businesses that are *actually* making profit. This year, our fifth and sixth graders are running a food truck. (Last year, they launched an Airbnb business.) Just recently, I had the privilege of watching Alpha students deliver a TEDx Talk. One of our students — a ten-year-old girl — shared her experience as the highest-placing fourth grade girl in the country in the National History Bowl. She highlighted the power of “learning to learn,” and brought the crowd to a standing ovation. Again: ten years old!

Trust me, we’re holding back on our kids. These are the kinds of things they can accomplish when they’re given time and support to discover their passions.

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“But this is just for rich kids, right? What do we do for everyone else?”

Many parents assume this, but it just isn’t true. We opened an Alpha School in Brownsville, Texas: the second poorest school district in the country. There, kids often come to us in the bottom 10th percentile. Within two years, they’re performing in the 90th percentile. Some students don’t speak any English — they cross the border every day from Mexico to come to school — but by the end of the school year, they’re 99th percentile in English reading and language. This is the beauty of an AI tutor! It doesn’t care if you’re rich, poor, white, black, brown, 10th percentile or 85th percentile. It is infinitely patient, infinitely equipped to meet each kid where they are. And before you panic and think, “The robots are taking over! What happened to teachers?”, you should know that we value our teachers more than anything. They’re the backbone of our system. Their role has just evolved.

At Alpha School, our teachers focus on what they’re best at: motivational and emotional support. No more creating lesson plans. No more delivering lectures. No more grading homework. Instead, they prioritize one-on-one time with every single one of their students: developing trust, learning what makes them tick, getting to know their needs, and ultimately, supporting their educational journey. In the classroom, these are gifts.

I want to encourage you: open your mind to flipping the switch on education. Just because we grew up in a certain system doesn’t mean we have to put our kids through it. Just because we “turned out fine” doesn’t mean it’s a healthy choice for the next generation. Right now, we’re standing at the precipice of a huge opportunity.

Let’s take advantage of it.

Some of you may be wondering: “This school may be working in private, but what happens when we try to take it public?” In my opinion, the least we can do is take something that’s working and apply it to the masses. It would be an injustice not to.

I want you to think, really think, about what it would mean to provide your child with a personalized learning experience, with daily opportunities to develop life skills and build things they’re passionate about. What could that do for them?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

There has never been a more exciting time to be five years old.