A $65,000-a-year private school is expanding with an opening in Santa Monica next month, betting AI \u2014 not teachers \u2014 can exceed the area\u2019s elite campuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re outperforming top private schools like Harvard-Westlake<\/a>,\u201d Anna Davalantes, a representative for Alpha School, told the Santa Monica Sun<\/a>. Davalantes claimed that Alpha achieves these superior results without cherry-picking its students.<\/p>\n The school is asking parents to cough up a staggering $65,000 for a year for students to learn academic subjects twice as fast as their peers in traditional school in just two hours of morning lessons with an AI tutor<\/a>, their website <\/a>boasts.<\/p>\n Instead of traditional lectures, students use custom AI technology for understand academic subjects. <\/p>\n The school has replaced conventional teachers with \u201cguides.\u201d <\/p>\n Davalantes said while most top-performing exclusive schools only accept academically-gifted applicants, Alpha is \u201cstill way outperforming what Harvard-Westlake has on their SATs, their ACTs<\/a>, their CAASPP scores,\u201d reports the Sun.<\/p>\n Since academics are covered during the first half of the day, the school will conduct hands-on workshops in the afternoon, focusing on life skills such as financial literacy, team work and public speaking. The high-end school will launch its bold experiment in SoCal with a select group of just 30 families.<\/p>\n Alpha substitutes conventional teachers by \u201cguides,\u201d who are not required to have professional teaching experience and often transition from previous careers as tech founders or sports coaches. The company pays them a hefty annual salary of roughly $150,000 for spending at least 30 minutes with individual kids to help them set goals \u2013\u2013\u00a0both personal and academic.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Alpha said its personalized AI platform cranks out custom lesson plans and a unique series of questions appears on students\u2019 screens. They have to get all the answers correct before moving on to the next grade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While students learn through a device, the guides help them \u201cstay in that \u2018Goldilocks zone\u2019 \u2014 not too hard, not too easy,\u201d said Derek Bergmann, one of the guides at the school, reports the Sun.<\/p>\n The Ai-enabled device is personalized for each student. <\/p>\n 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<\/a>. But, Bergmann believes \u201ctechnology is a tool \u2014 it comes down to the intention with which the tool is used.\u201d<\/p>\n The radical model has already caught the eye of the feds. Education Secretary Linda McMahon toured the school\u2019s Austin campus in September<\/a>, claiming that \u201charnessing AI thoughtfully will be critical to expanding opportunity and preparing students for tomorrow\u2019s workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n Founded by education entrepreneur MacKenzie Price and software billionaire Joe Liemandt, Alpha School already has three locations in California \u2013\u2013 Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Orange County \u2013\u2013 and one in New York City. <\/p>\n Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n California Post News: Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t
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