At the private Alpha School, artificial intelligence programs teach personalized math, science, language and reading lessons to students for two hours every morning while human “guides” cheer them on.
During the other four hours of each school day, the guides at Alpha’s eight K-12 campuses in Florida and Texas lead students in hands-on “life skills” projects such as planning a catering menu and taking a five-mile bike ride.
“Our guides are focused on the motivational and emotional aspect of connecting with kids as self-driven learners,” said MacKenzie Price, a self-described “frustrated mom” who co-founded Alpha with her husband in 2014 to help students incorporate digital technology into learning. “The AI doesn’t replace them.”
Alpha, which enrolls roughly 600 students and charges up to $75,000 a year in tuition, belongs to a fast-growing niche of AI-led schools and learning programs that have multiplied since ChatGPT took the world by storm in 2022.
Ms. Price said 12 more Alpha campuses will open this fall in California, North Carolina, Virginia, New York, Arizona, Florida and Texas.
Other growing AI programs include Unbound Academy, SchoolAI, LittleLit, Prenda, Acton Academy and Khan Academy’s “Khanmigo” software.
Several insiders interviewed by The Washington Times praised the programs for matching the learning speed and needs of each student, with some noting that Alpha students test in the top 1% to 2% of their peers.
“AI-run schools operate like a GPS for learning, constantly adjusting routes based on where a student is, where they struggle, and how they prefer to learn,” said Candice Scarborough, a cybersecurity expert and computer science instructor at the University of Maryland Global Campus. “Teachers monitor dashboards, review progress, and step in when students hit roadblocks that no algorithm can quite decode.”
Others warned that game-like algorithms in some AI learning programs can increase screen addiction among youngsters without supervision.
“We don’t know yet what this does to kids’ creativity or how they learn to handle conflict, talk things out or just be with other people,” said Bob Hutchins, a behavioral psychologist and CEO of the AI literacy company Human Voice Media. “I’ve talked with parents who love the flexibility but worry their kids are staring at screens all day without real friends. While some platforms build in group projects or live chats, most AI-based schools are isolating by default.”
Generative AI chatbots that help users pose questions to create text, images and music from an ever-expanding database of information have surged in popularity over the past three years.
Multiple reports show AI usage has outpaced school policy, leaving millions of students to adopt it without waiting for supervision.
In a March study of 3,682 U.S. high school students, the learning app Brainly found that 67% planned to use AI to prepare for their final exams, up from 59% the year before.
“AI has ushered in a culture of shortcuts, laziness, and lowered expectations,” said Jessica Bartnick, a former Dallas Independent School District board member who started the Foundation for C.H.O.I.C.E. to mentor disadvantaged children in North Texas. “Students no longer wrestle with concepts or language; they outsource their thinking to a machine and move on.”
Best practices
States such as Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Missouri and Oregon have joined the Trump administration in a bipartisan push to train students and workers in AI literacy.
Unbound Academy, an online public charter school that follows Alpha’s two-hour learning model, will open tuition-free in Arizona for up to 250 students in grades four to eight this fall.
While Alpha has physical campuses and charges tuition, Unbound will have teachers lead the life skills workshops virtually.
“Our guides can host workshops on topics like public speaking in a virtual setting,” said Ms. Price, who also co-founded Unbound. “I would argue that Unbound students will have more interaction with their teachers and classmates online than listening to 50-minute lectures in traditional classroom settings.”
Most other AI learning models are software programs, not schools.
SchoolAI is a tool that teachers use to create custom AI assistants to help with lesson planning, parent communication and student progress reports.
LittleLit offers built-in teacher certification models to ensure the chatbot supports teachers rather than replacing them. It includes a dashboard with progress updates for parents.
Wyatt Mayham, CEO of Northwest AI Consulting, said AI-led schools remain a riskier bet for policymakers than software programs adaptable for traditional classroom needs.
“You can see clearly that Alpha is expensive and unproven at scale,” said Mr. Mayham, who is based in Portland, Oregon. “Unbound is free but still untested.”
He predicted that programs like SchoolAI will grow faster than the Alpha model because “they empower teachers with automation and insight, without requiring schools to rebuild from scratch.”
Michael Everest, the founding CEO of edYOU, an AI-powered conversational tutor program used by 800 students in Colorado’s Adams County School District 14, said his course prep and test prep systems “build entire curricula and practice exams in seconds” without replacing traditional instruction.
His program has expanded rapidly from a California pilot program over the past 18 months.
“Teachers and administrators receive dashboards and performance insights in the form of daily, weekly and monthly progress reports on their students,” Mr. Everest said. “The AI is a tool, not a replacement, so humans guide the process and step in where needed.”
And Leah Hanes, California-based CEO of the education technology company ExoDexa, said her company’s AI-based education games make learning more personalized and engaging than in the past.
“We utilize AI to deliver immersive, game-like challenges that meet students where they are, adapting in real-time to their understanding,” Ms. Hanes said. “Unlike traditional education, which prizes seat time and test scores, we focus on mastery, agency, and engagement.”
’Declining IQ’
In several states, public schools have taken the lead in preparing teachers and students to work with AI.
Georgia’s Seckinger High School has launched an AI-focused Career and Technical Education track throughout its K–12 feeder pipeline.
The University of Florida has developed a similar program in the Sunshine State, integrating courses such as “AI in the World” and “Foundations of Machine Learning” into public school curricula.
Meanwhile, private microschools have also popped up that follow a model similar to that of Alpha Schools.
They include Acton Academy, a network of small Christian campuses founded in 2009 that has come to use AI programs for in-class learning.
Justin MacDonald, head of Academy at District Church, a K-12 Christian school in El Dorado Hills, California, predicted that AI will become the dominant teaching influence in schools by 2030.
“We already see declining IQ,” Mr. MacDonald said. “We are getting dumber. AI will exacerbate that unless we specifically guard against it.”
Experts say it’s essential to maintain the caring involvement of parents — especially for students with special needs and learning disabilities — to keep AI humanized.
“In every traditional school I’ve worked with, the children who thrive have an active parent advocate,” said Genie Dawkins, a Washington, D.C., special education consultant who works with families to develop individualized learning plans. “AI-run schools like Alpha and platforms like LittleLit offer data dashboards for parents, but the real challenge is building true relationships so families can stay engaged.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.