A private school charging $65,000 a year is set to open a new Santa Monica campus next month, wagering that artificial intelligence—not traditional classroom teachers—can rival or outperform the region’s most prestigious schools.
“We’re outperforming top private schools like Harvard-Westlake,” Anna Davalantes, a representative for Alpha School, told the Santa Monica Sun. She said the school is achieving those results without selectively admitting only the highest-performing students.
Alpha is asking families to pay the steep annual tuition for a model it says allows students to complete core academic work twice as quickly as children in conventional schools, using an AI tutor during just two hours of morning instruction, according to its website.
Davalantes told the Sun that while many elite schools build their reputations by admitting already high-achieving applicants, Alpha is “still way outperforming what Harvard-Westlake has on their SATs, their ACTs, their CAASPP scores.”
With academics concentrated in the first part of the day, the school plans to use afternoons for hands-on workshops centered on practical life skills, including financial literacy, teamwork and public speaking. The Southern California launch will begin with a small cohort of just 30 families.
Instead of traditional teachers, Alpha employs “guides,” who do not need formal teaching experience and may come from backgrounds such as tech entrepreneurship or athletic coaching. The company reportedly pays them about $150,000 a year to work closely with students, including spending at least 30 minutes with each child to help set personal and academic goals.
Alpha says its personalized AI system generates tailored lesson plans and presents students with individualized question sequences on their screens. Students must answer every question correctly before they are allowed to advance to the next grade level.
While students learn through a device, the guides help them “stay in that ‘Goldilocks zone’ — not too hard, not too easy,” said Derek Bergmann, one of the guides at the school, reports the Sun.
Tech in the classroom usually raises eyebrows and doctors have warned that this digital binge could leave kids struggling with crippling social anxiety, crushed self-esteem, and deep depression. But, Bergmann believes “technology is a tool — it comes down to the intention with which the tool is used.”
The radical model has already caught the eye of the feds. Education Secretary Linda McMahon toured the school’s Austin campus in September, claiming that “harnessing AI thoughtfully will be critical to expanding opportunity and preparing students for tomorrow’s workforce.”
Founded by education entrepreneur MacKenzie Price and software billionaire Joe Liemandt, Alpha School already has three locations in California –– Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Orange County –– and one in New York City.
