Studying for two hours? The AI-powered Alpha School resides in the Seattle region

The Alpha School, an AI-powered private school chain that promises to teach kids core academics for two hours a day, plans to open a Seattle location in Kirkland this fall and will run its local weekly summer programs at Microsoft’s Redmond campus starting in late June.

This approach frees up the entire day with life skills programming, projects, and other character-building activities, which is another key part of Alpha School’s tone. There is no homework, by design, to give children time for sports and other pursuits outside of school.

In the fall, Alpha School secured space in a building just east of Google’s Kirkland campus, at 620 Fifth Ave. S., and we have started applying. The first campus has up to 150 students.

Alpha School founder MacKenzie Price and team have been expanding the Austin-based chain across the country. The driving force behind the school is technology entrepreneur Joe Liemandt, founder of software company Trilogy and private equity firm ESW Capital.

In an interview, Price said he has family in the Seattle area and considers the district to be “very forward-thinking” when it comes to innovation and valuing education. Alpha School has seen interest from people in the area for a while, but real estate can be a challenge, he said, so they were happy when they were able to secure the Kirkland location.

The school’s use of screens and AI naturally attracts questions and some criticism, but Price said skepticism about the role of technology misses an important distinction.

“There’s a big difference between students scrolling through TikTok or watching cartoons or playing video games all day, and having a personalized learning experience,” she said. “The idea of ​​active, engaged communication, rather than just use.”

Price drew a sharp line against chatbots — “cheat bots,” he called them — which Alpha kept outside of its core mandate. Instead, he said, the software diagnoses what each student has and can’t do, and then delivers lessons tailored to their level and pace.

Alpha calls the adults in its classes “guides” rather than teachers, and pays them more than regular teacher salaries. Schools operate on a 5 to 1 student guide ratio. The guides don’t provide academic instruction, Price said, but instead focus on teaching and motivation while technology handles the lessons.

The model has its critics. Some teachers have questioned Alpha School’s claim, saying that learning cannot be accelerated as dramatically as Alpha claims, and that its strong results may reflect the students it enrolls and its methods.

Alpha stands by its results, providing data showing its students in the top percentile on the NWEA MAP, a widely used standardized test administered to students across the country.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has shown interest in the concept, which he revealed during a recent podcast recording in conjunction with the company’s Build an Engineer conference. Asked about AI and education, Nadella said that meeting other people behind the Alpha school to learn their way, he said that it is interesting to rethink what education will look like in the future.

“Maybe the next big startup and success story will be someone who builds a new university or a new pedagogy,” Nadella said on the No Priors conference and the Latent Space podcasts.

Microsoft’s communication came via Caitlin McCabe, Nadella’s vice president and chief of staff. He first became involved as a parent of young children attracted to Alpha’s model, not in his role at Microsoft, representing the school to the district and helping connect it with interested families.

Fall tuition at Kirkland has not been determined, according to Alpha School officials, but “founding families” who enroll in the first year will receive a $10,000 discount.

Weekly summer programs at the Microsoft Redmond campus will run for eight weeks, from late June to late August. They are open to the public for $1,500 per week, and Microsoft employees receive a 50% discount per child. The idea is to give students and families a sense of what Alpha School is like, with an experience similar to a typical day during the school year.