Do you see that as sort of a race to get done, or how do you interpret what students are doing during that two hours? How do you guide them?

I will tell you, I think there has never been a more exciting time to be a five-year-old.

And I think what we're seeing in education, this is seriously an incredible moment where we can finally allow students to get the individual personalized attention that is impossible for even the best teacher to provide to 15, 20, 25 students in a room.

And that's what we're doing at Alpha.

We're using artificial intelligence to create personalized learning plans that are able to meet the student where they are at the level that they need to be.

And so as a result, during the two hours in the morning that Alpha provides academic teaching, our students are able to learn twice as much as students who are sitting in a traditional school classroom for the majority of the day.

And it really is because of two things.

What access to tools do they have in your classroom? Do they just have your platform or can they just have like Claude running on the side?

What about the other skills? And what about the friction and staying in that productive, struggling phase that could last more than 25 minutes? So how do you deal with that? Well, from an academic perspective,

when you talk about things like productive struggle, that's actually what our two hours of learning is meant to keep kids in that space.

Productive struggle.

It's not too hard where they have turned off.

And that unfortunately happens in a traditional classroom often, right? People are like, I don't know what's going on.

I'm just going to zone out.

So the material that a student is going through, it's not too hard.

Are their personal projects part of those projects?

I-

Um, and so yeah, so there's things.

So first of all, there's a few things that we've incorporated in order to, uh, create behavior standards, um, so that kids can realize, okay, number one, it is a work hard culture.

It is a meritocracy culture.

So for example, if you don't hit the goals that you have for a workshop, if you don't pass a workshop, you may n- may not go on the snowboarding trip to Utah, 'cause you didn't hit, hit your goals.

And that's something that sometimes parents go, "Wait, what? We're gonna ha- miss this?" But again, we believe that kids learn so much when they try something hard, when they fail, and they're surrounded by support and coaching to help, help get them better.

Uh, we also have something called Town Hall.

Mm-hmm

Wow.

So anyway, crushes were big because they were kind of a new kind of crush.

Lesbian relationships can move really fast in a toxic way, especially if you're like... dumb little 21 year olds.

And I was, yeah, very dramatic.

I also, I have depression and anxiety and I was unmedicated until I had to go inpatient at the mental health hospital And that was like two years ago.

So I was also like, yeah, just deeply unstable.

But I found out that like, I'd always liked to journal, but music was like, and I'd always like to sing.

I have a feeling there's something inherent about what you two do to pull people in and engage and support people.

So why don't you walk us through a typical day? Okay.

So we are a full-day school program in our physical locations.

And every morning starts, whether it's kindergarten to – whether it's from pre-K through 12th grade, every day starts with what's called a limitless launch.

And I want you to think 12th.

Tony Robbins for kids.

It's a time when the kids all get together and they are usually doing some sort of group challenge.

Maybe it's a physical challenge.

You've been in business since 2014, correct?

... a kids needs an explanation from a human?

So there's a couple of things that can happen there.

Let's say a student is, um, working through a math concept, and they are struggling to understand that.

First of all, they have a variety of resources that their guide will be coaching them through.

Like, "Hey, did you check a different video explanation?" or, "Did you read this other thing?" or, "Did you see, you know, uh, this part that you can learn?" It also is able to understand, you know what? Maybe the reason the student is having trouble with this particular concept is because we need to go back and revisit...

a concept from earlier just to help you, again, understand this.

Let's go back and refresh your, your understanding of something else as you're going into this difficult material.

Yeah.

[laughs]

... and we're gonna do all these things." And the first day of school, my daughter came home, and I was like, "Do you have any homework?" And she's like, "Yes, I do," and she pulls out these worksheets that were like basically identify colors, you know.

And I was like, "Oh, okay, well, we've been doing that for a while, but sure, let's do that." And day after day after day, we just kept getting what I almost felt like were more and more inane assignments at home, and it started making me just ask questions.

And I remember meeting with her kindergarten teacher, who was, like, the perfect kindergarten teacher, so sweet and loving and caring, which I think is what we want, you know, for our kids.

But just asking like, "Hey, you know, my daughter's kind of reading books, but right now we're kind of looking at identifying alphabet letters." And she said, "We just need time to kind of understand where all the kids are at." And what ended up happening is, over the next couple of years, I just kept having more and more of these conversations and asking the questions that you mentioned of, like, how do we make sure that we personalize this learning experience? How do I make sure that my kids are challenged and growing and have their curiosities met? And unfortunately, in my situation, the answers I got were very frustrating, which was basically we can't accommodate individual experiences when we have a group of students.

We have to go at the pace of the classroom, which is really what traditional education is all about, right? Traditional education that's been around for the last 200 years, whether you go to school in rural India or you go to the highest-end, you know, private school in Connecticut, you're gonna see the same thing, which is a teacher leading a group of students in a time-based system through a set amount of curriculum.

And that way of education was really helpful back when we had to raise factory workers who were going to be compliant, rule-following, obedient workers who asked permission before they took a break or did anything.

Mm-hmm

Is that, uh, in a curriculum or is it more entrepreneurship, financial literacy, team building? Is it both?

You know, one of the things that we will gain initial interest about is the more efficient, more mastered academics that we're able to provide.

But what people really get excited about is what that opportunity unlocks in the afternoons when it comes to building life skills and doing these workshops.

And so you hit the nail on the head, and the answer is really all of these things.

We can have kindergarten and first graders who are building businesses.

We can have them also learn how to put up a tent and catch a fish and bait a hook.

There are so many opportunities for kids to be able to do all different types of activities that teach them life skills.

Right.

Is that, uh, in the curriculum, or is it more entrepreneurship, financial literacy, team building? Is it both?

You know, one of the things that we will gain initial interest about is the more efficient, more mastered academics that we're able to provide.

But what people really get excited about is what that opportunity unlocks in the afternoons when it comes to building life skills and doing these workshops.

And so you hit the nail on the head, and the answer is really all of these things.

We can have kindergarten and first graders who are building businesses.

We can have them also learn how to put up a tent and catch a fish and bait a hook.

There are so many opportunities for kids to be able to do all different types of activities that teach them life skills.

Because a lot of us think, like, well, if it's AI-driven, then maybe the cost will go down, or it should be cheaper, and is there a hope that if this expands, that there will be a way for people to get into this program or get into this without having to pay such a, a steep price?

Mm

... uh, around just what does this world look like, and I think the question fundamentally that it causes people to ask is, "How is this going to affect my life, and how can I adapt to it?" And I think that's why it's so important that we teach our young generation, and we ourselves need to learn how to adapt, and be able to be well-versed enough to learn to use AI as a tool, and not be controlled by it.

And so that is one of the other things that we teach our students, to be able to use AI to give them superpowers and help them.

Because as you can guess, our jobs are all gonna change.

I mean, like, the majority of jobs that our kids are gonna be doing in 20 years literally do not exist yet, and so it's even more important that we're teaching kids how to be adaptable, how to be creative, how to be great critical thinkers, how to communicate, and, uh, be able to work with others.

Those are the skills that need to be taught.

Um, and I also will say, you know, a lot of times I, I hear from parents who say, "Well gosh, in a world where everything you could learn is right there at the tip of your finger- fingers, and you have this ability to do that, what do kids really need to know?" And my answer is that with AI technology, it is so easy now to provide a tailored education experience to make sure that we're filling kids' brains with good information because let's face it, Jenny, let's make kids' minds an interesting place to hang out for the rest of their lives.

And so, when you take away this top-down standardized approach, there's no need to bully because you have freedom.

So to set the stage again for our listeners, Mackenzie, could you walk us through what a typical day is like for an Alpha student? Starting in the morning, I arrive in the school, what happens?

Alpha is a full-day school experience.

So it's not online programming.

It's not homeschool.

It's a full-day school.

So kids are dropped off in the morning.

They're with other kids their same age.

How do you create that balance?

Alpha School is the brainchild of MacKenzie Price, former mortgage lender and parent, who became obsessed with educational research.

And it sort of culminated about halfway through my oldest daughter's second-grade school year.

Uh, she told me she didn't want to go to school anymore, and she said, "School's so boring." And I just had this moment of like, "Oh, my goodness."

As you walk down the aisle, Mireya says, you realize some of these students are moving on from reading to social studies to math every 25 minutes or so.

This is not Zoom school like people had during COVID.

You know, during COVID, they just took the traditional teacher in front of a classroom model and put it on, uh, you know, on Zoom.

Um, here, each of our students is interacting at their level and pace with their AI tutor.

Now I can see how this kind of self-guided, um, AI-based curriculum would work really well for, like, a student who's, uh, very self-guided, who doesn't need a lot of structure, but I'm curious, how does this work for kids who may not be super self-directed?

Yeah.

So, personalized learning allows us to help every kid.... wherever they're at.

So, you take that kid who maybe struggles a little bit more, or maybe has fallen behind.

First of all, uh, when a child is able to learn the material that they're at ...

Let's say you got a fifth-grader who needs to go back and review second or third or fourth grade knowledge, uh, it's easier for them.

But the key critical feature to our success is that we have transformed the role of the teacher in our classroom to be able to focus on the most important thing when it comes to great learning, which is motivation.

So, I'm curious as you think about, like, everything that AlphaSchool is, how big a piece is the technology for you? Like, how do you think about the tech piece in relation to everything else?

Is that right? And like what is the special sauce that makes Alpha School different?

Yes, so going back to when I realized I needed to get my daughters out of their traditional school experience, I knew it wasn't about just switching schools or going to a private school from a public school.

I realized it was very much that traditional teacher in front of the classroom, time-based system that was the problem.

And so I looked around and I said, okay, let's do something.

And the question is, if we were going to reimagine education from the ground up, You know, what is it that we believe? And first and fundamentally, I believe kids are limitless and it is a school's job to build an environment that unlocks their potential.

Then the next question is, if you build this environment where you're holding kids to high standards, because I believe high standards are really critical and should be true for everyone.

And key here, also provide high levels of support.

What have you learned about kind of AI assessment? How do you make that more human? Where is that currently within the Alpha School learning clock?

Oh, you mean you don't want them back at half past 11 in the morning?

Exactly.

It's like, "Hey, you got to go to school all day." And really school is a bundle, right? It is a daycare.

It's a socialization environment.

Uh, they're, you know, it's- it's a place where they're doing all kinds of different activities, you know, after school.

It's a community anchor, right? And so you have that.

So, that's where I looked at this, you know, back in 2014 when we, we decided to take our kids out of school and start a new school.

... different sorts of schooling?

For you, what is the big idea for Alpha?

Well, what we're doing is we're creating humans who are going to be smarter than AI.

And I know that's a pretty lofty goal, isn't it? Well, let me tell you why.

In today's world, it's no longer just about the three R's of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

It's now about the four C's.

It's about critical thinking.

communication, collaboration, and creativity.

But if the guides there are very specifically saying, we're not teaching you, how do you like that kind of, for lack of a better word, the cold start problem of learning? I just can't that that doesn't the penny hasn't dropped for me there.