2-Sigma in 2 Hours: How Alpha Schools are Using AI to Revolutionize Education

**Nathan Labenz** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome back to The Cognitive Revolution. Today, I'm speaking with MacKenzie Price, founder of Alpha School and 2 Hour Learning, and pioneer of a new educational model that's using AI to scale one-on-one, mastery-based tutoring to help students learn 2 to 10 times faster, such that they can finish their traditional academic subjects in the morning and then spend their afternoons taking field trips, working on independent projects, and otherwise exploring and cultivating their interests. Importantly, just because the Alpha School model is futuristic and gives kids lots of free time to explore, does not mean they've gone soft on academic standards. On the contrary, MacKenzie frames learning time as productive struggle, and Alpha Schools demand focused effort and expect students to master all of the usual Common Core subjects. The results speak for themselves. Despite spending just 2 hours per day on academics, which means spending some 20 to 30 hours per subject per year, or just 10 to 15 percent of the 200 hours per subject per year that's standard today, Alpha School students learn 2.3 times more per school year than statistical models predict they would in a normal school, and their school level results on standardized tests are nearly always in the 99th percentile. In this conversation, we explore both the AI product implementation and the way in which the rest of the school experience is changing. Starting with why MacKenzie does not recommend that schools give students access to chatbots, and what they do instead, which is to combine an ever-evolving mix of adaptive learning apps, which they both build and buy, with systems that analyze learning rates and patterns and make personalized curriculum recommendations, plus more and more lesson level personalization and multimodal support all the time. We also discuss what kids are doing in the afternoon once their academics are complete, how Alpha School is beginning to teach them to use AI as a superpower, and how the Alpha School model can be adapted to different price points, including the possibility of public charter schools and the new home school option they're starting to roll out. Perhaps most importantly, we explore the evolution of the role of the teacher, which Alpha Schools call guides or coaches, and what it means both for kids and the future of work more generally. As MacKenzie explains, because Alpha's guides don't have to worry about delivering academic content, they can focus entirely on motivation, mentorship, and emotional support. And the school can both hire for those skills and hold guides accountable to making sure that each and every kid truly loves school. I find this vision super exciting, both because this does seem like one major area of the economy that AI can positively transform without also disrupting the labor market, and because when I think back on my own education, it was clearly the teachers who made the extra effort to engage me with special projects, one-on-one conversations, and possibilities for my future that I'd never considered who made the biggest impact on me. I was privileged to have quite a few who made their mark. Mr. Francis and Mr. Rogers in sixth grade, Mrs. McBain for biology, Mr. Vance and Ms. Kohut for high school English, Mrs. Voss for AP history, Mr. Andriasko for chemistry and physics, and Mr. Medorski for government. The idea that every kid could have that kind of transformative relationship with teachers, not just as the exception but as the rule, could easily be more impactful than the AI-powered instruction itself.
The bottom line for me as a parent of a six-year-old who just finished Montessori kindergarten and a four-year-old who starts in the fall is simply that I am thrilled that the AI revolution is coming to education before my kids have had to endure much time in the one-size-fits-all lecture-based classroom model that has dominated education since the Industrial Revolution. And I really look forward to seeing how the combination of AI instruction and human mentorship helps them learn and develop at a rate and in ways that our generation could only have dreamed of. This, it seems to me, is one of the most exciting upsides of the Cognitive Revolution. With that, I hope you enjoy this fascinating exploration of the AI Revolution in education with MacKenzie Price, founder of Alpha School and 2 Hour Learning. MacKenzie Price, co-founder of Alpha School and 2 Hour Learning, welcome to the Cognitive Revolution.

**MacKenzie Price** (4:08)
Thank you, Nathan. I'm so excited to be here. I love anything cognitive and revolutions are great, especially when it comes to education, so I'm in.

**Nathan Labenz** (4:15)
Yeah, the AI revolution is coming to everything and education, as you're demonstrating, is no exception.

**MacKenzie Price** (4:21)
And so needed, right? Like so needed. It's time for education to change. So yeah, this is great.