Builders of greatness reject the “Tyranny of the OR” and embrace the “Genius of the AND.” They embrace both extremes across a number of dimensions at the same time — purpose AND profit, continuity AND change, freedom AND responsibility, discipline AND creativity, humility AND will, empirical analysis AND decisive action, etc. - Jim Collins, Built to Last
Hi, this is the GenWise team- we bring out this newsletter to help parents and educators to complement the work of formal schools and associated systems. We are also a founder-member of Gifted World- if you are interested in issues related to gifted education and talent development, and are looking for resources for students, do become a member of the Gifted World Community (membership is free).
Alpha School in Austin, Texas has been creating waves on social media in the last few months. Many are impressed with their claims of 2.6X faster learning and even more (including Vishnu, the author this post) are skeptical about their ‘Learning with AI without teachers’ claims. Fortunately for the curious, a (very long) review of the school and its methods by a parent was posted on Scott Alexander’s famous blog recently. We presented a summarized description of the school’s approach in this post- Reading that before continuing to read this post will help. But do read the detailed review by the Alpha school parent when you can- we recommend it highly.
In this post, Vishnu Agnihotri, co-founder, GenWise shares his views about Alpha School’s approach to teaching-learning, based on the Alpha school parent’s detailed review and some of the comments on the review.
The Genius of the AND: Learning from Alpha School's Bold Experiment
The debate around Alpha School reveals a classic educational trap: falling into the "Tyranny of the OR" when we desperately need the "Genius of the AND” (see the quote at the beginning of this newsletter). Too often, we treat educational innovation as binary choices—traditional vs. progressive, academic rigour vs. social-emotional learning, efficiency vs. depth. Alpha School's experiment offers something more valuable: a chance to transcend these false dichotomies. I believe that Alpha School’s experiment is a bold one with much merit that needs to be built upon. Surely, some of their methods will be found wanting and will need to be changed or refined. But education needs to be treated as a complex engineering problem that can be systematically improved.
Further, different families and cultures have somewhat different goals for the ‘kind of individuals’ they want to nurture. For example, some parents may be keen on children developing a competitive edge while others may be completely against that; some may want children to have depth of academic learning while others may want their children to be ‘hustlers’ in the real world. Such variations in educational goals will require different teaching-learning environments. Yet all teaching-learning environments need to adopt effective strategies for some of the common goals of education- say how children master subject content, how they learn to work with each other, how they develop other socio-emotional skills etc.
In this post, my focus is on the motivation to learn and personalized learning. I believe these are very important factors and the traditional school structure and approach has done poorly on both fronts.
Alpha School has attempted to tackle both these areas differently and it looks like they have had some success. Whether there is agreement on their approach or not, it is important for all educators and parents to consider two questions-
How do we nurture the motivation to learn in the child, and hold the learner responsible for learning (while providing support and enabling success of course)?
Can we allow children to learn at their pace, neither pushing them to move on beyond their level of current mastery, nor reining them in to slow down to the median? It should be obvious how compelling all children to learn at the same pace is significantly detrimental to motivation. Children should also be allowed some freedom to explore and pursue their interests, but I am not getting into this topic in this post.
The best educational content from some of the best educators in the world is available for free (or very low cost) on the internet. And yet, that has not made any significant difference to educational outcomes around the world. Why?
The most important job of a teacher is to motivate students to learn. YouTube is a superlative medium to get explanations for concepts you’re interested in. But developing the interest in the first place is usually done by good teachers.
Based on what I understand of Alpha School, I believe they are trying to put six ‘first principles’ into action-
Engineering Student Motivation
Enabling Personalized Learning Through Assessments and Flexible Structure
Balancing Personalized Academics with Projects and Social Learning
Leveraging Technology for Efficiency, Not Replacement
Creating Communities of Peers with Similar Interests/ Abilities and Focusing on Excellence
In the following section, I describe how Alpha School has tried to put these principles into action. Whether we agree with their specific methods or not, as educators and parents it becomes our responsibility to figure out ways to action these principles and build systems of teaching-learning that are more effective and relevant to the times we are in. One important way of doing this is to identify the bright spots in different systems (traditional structures, Finnish schools, Alpha School and others…) and what we can learn from them. Yes- I believe traditional structures and systems too have a lot to offer, and the last thing we should do in education is to look for silver bullets or succumb to the ‘latest innovation’ (many are just fads). My plea is to recognize what has worked and use that to build better educational strategies through co-opting the ‘Genius of the AND’.
How Alpha School Engineers Learning: Six Core Principles in Action
1. Engineering Student Motivation
Alpha School recognizes that motivation needs to be systematically cultivated. Their "Alpha Bucks" currency system provides immediate, concrete rewards for specific learning behaviors—completing lessons, achieving 80%+ mastery scores, and finishing work within scheduled time.
Importantly, they reward actions students can control (doing lessons) rather than outcomes they cannot (test scores). The system evolves with students: younger children are motivated by immediate rewards, while the school creates peer recognition through group bonuses and competition elements. There is some research that shows motivation develops from external approval to peer recognition to internal drive.
The "Dojo Points" system separately addresses social behavior, rewarding teamwork, respect, and perseverance. Students compete for daily "Dojo Master" status and weekly prize boxes, creating what Alpa school claims is positive peer pressure around character development.
Are the above methods the best ways to engineer student motivation? Especially in the long run? This is not at all clear. For example, Clark and Saxberg’s BEC framework (Belief-Expectancy-Control) emphasizes that motivation problems stem from four distinct factors (values, self-efficacy, emotions, attribution errors) that require different interventions while Alpha School’s approach seems to be more of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Clark and Saxberg say that when we attempt to give motivational support to students who are already motivated it is possible to change their values and efficacy in harmful ways and that unnecessary rewards can cause students to "change their academic values from interest in a learning task to achieving more rewards."
2. Enabling Personalized Learning Through Assessments and Flexible Structure
Alpha School's personalized approach depends on continuous assessment and flexible systems. Students must achieve 80%+ mastery on problem sets before moving forward, with missed questions automatically cycling back for review. Those struggling below this threshold trigger automatic coaching calls with remote teachers.
The platform tracks not just answers but engagement—using eye-tracking to monitor attention and effort. Students can self-book additional coaching calls when needed. Grade-level "mastery tests" serve as comprehensive checkpoints before advancement.
This assessment system enables true self-pacing: students work through 8-12 daily lesson "minimums" but can choose their order and speed. The author's daughter completed 2.5 grade levels in mathematics by mid-year, while others progress more slowly based on their needs.
One could question the problem sets and the criteria used for mastery but I don’t see any valid argument against this approach in principle.
Alpha School's platform embeds spaced repetition algorithms that bring back topics "just before the student forgets" to encode information in long-term memory. Every question provides immediate feedback—either "Great Job!" with expansion options or "Incorrect" with explanations and mini-remedial lessons.
The system enforces mastery learning: students cannot advance without demonstrating understanding, preventing the accumulative knowledge gaps that plague traditional education. This is particularly crucial in mathematics, where missing foundational concepts creates cascading difficulties.
Work is structured in 20-minute focused bursts followed by 5-10 minute "Q-breaks" for physical activity—applying research on attention spans and the benefits of movement for learning.
4. Balancing Personalized Academics with Projects and Social Learning
While core academics happen individually through the platform, Alpha School dedicates entire afternoons to collaborative learning. The GT School offers workshops in competitive debate, chess, robotics, and Quiz Bowl—all requiring peer interaction and teamwork.
"Check chart" activities mix individual skill-building (typing, puzzle-solving) with social challenges (giving school tours, participating in local tournaments). Students advance through levels only by completing both academic work and these broader competencies.
The workshop rotation exposes students to activities they might not choose independently while building community around shared challenges and achievements.
5. Leveraging Technology for Efficiency, Not Replacement
Alpha School uses technology to handle routine skill-building and progress tracking, freeing human "guides" for higher-value interactions. The platform automates lesson delivery, immediate feedback, and progress monitoring while maintaining detailed parent dashboards.
However, the school maintains a 5:1 student-to-guide ratio—much lower than traditional schools. Guides don't deliver academic content but focus on motivation, mentoring, and designing engaging workshops. They're paid significantly more than typical teachers ($60K-$150K vs. $40K average) and can concentrate on relationship-building and mentoring rather than content delivery.
Remote coaching calls provide human support precisely when students encounter difficulties, combining technological efficiency with personal attention.
The way they are using technology makes a lot of sense to me. Unfortunately, the marketing hype about ‘Learning with AI’ makes serious educators skeptical.
Navin Kabra, says in his post about how their approach is not really AI (and that’s a relief). Note that they are not using ‘GenAI tutors’.
6. Creating Communities of Peers with Similar Interests/ Abilities and Focusing on Excellence
Alpha School carefully curates its learning environment and peer group. The GT School screens for academic potential and surrounds students with others who find learning engaging rather than burdensome.
The competitive workshop structure—where students place in national debates, chess tournaments, and academic competitions—normalizes excellence and creates peer pressure toward achievement rather than mediocrity.
The parent author notes that his children never complained about boredom and actively requested additional lessons, suggesting the peer environment makes academic engagement socially rewarding rather than isolating.
The Integration Effect
Alpha School's effectiveness (at least with certain ‘elite non-conformist families’) comes not from any single innovation but from implementing all six principles simultaneously. Their "Alpha Bucks" motivate daily effort while mastery-based progression ensures real learning. Spaced repetition and immediate feedback accelerate skill acquisition while afternoon workshops build social skills and real-world learning. Technology handles routine tasks while human guides provide mentorship within a community that celebrates academic achievement.
The result is an educational system that accomplishes in two hours (or thereabouts) what traditional schools struggle to achieve in six. For example, Pamela Hobart's daughter maintained 99th percentile achievement and top growth percentiles for three years with no homework, never requiring acceleration requests or boredom complaints that plague parents at traditional schools.
Valid Concerns about the Alpha School Approach
People have raised many valid concerns about Alpha School’s approach. It is outside the scope of this post to delve into these in detail. The interested reader can go through the comments posted below the parent’s detailed review. However, I share a few of the important concerns and views people have shared, including my brief responses to these comments.
Early Acceleration and Competition
A commenter ‘Eremolalos’, who is a psychotherapist with a child adopted from China (the child is now 29 years old), makes a couple of important points-
Rather than accelerate learning at a young age, children can be allowed to be relaxed and explore things early on. If this is done effectively, they develop a capacity for ‘fascinated delight’ which is very important. Children are able to learn ‘what is needed’ even later in a fraction of the time traditional schools take. She says this on the basis of homeschooling her child in the early years. This comment is in line with what educators have observed over the decades- it is the motivation and the desire to learn which is the biggest bottleneck to the pace of learning.
An atmosphere of competition can be highly damaging in the long-term for emotional well-being.
Her comments on these points are posted verbatim below-
Kids are subject to states of very deep fascinated delight. Preserving the ability to enter that state is the most important aspect of early education. It’s not possible to systematically train small kids in basic reading, writing and math in a way that has them in that state. You can make it fairly *fun* by using kid-centric computer training, but “having fun” is not the magic state, just a pleasant one kids enter easily. You can also engage kids in learning that stuff if you have a reward-laden set-up where kids get rewards for engaging in training, or where kids are motivated by a desire to win. But wanting to win stuff and wanting to beat other people out are also not the magic state.
So she and I sort of did it backward. Instead of getting her way ahead academically, so that she could finish her formal education early and then be free to begin a career or do other things, I let her be free to do other things for 6 years, then taught her the essential skills covered in school in a tiny fraction of the time that would have taken in school.
About growing up in an atmosphere that fosters competition... Come on! Even if your kids don't get involved in the afternoon 'academic competitions'... they are swimming in water with one fat fxxxxg packet of Competitiveness dissolved in it... I'm a psychotherapist and have somehow ended up as one of the go-to therapists in town for super-smart students and young professionals.
My Comment- These are important criticisms that need to be considered. In India, on one hand there is a need for accelerated methods of learning considering the huge gaps in learning levels between students in high-fee private schools and government/ low-cost private schools. On the other hand, competition is a big disease that is destroying childhoods and the relationship to learning.
2.6X Faster Learning based on Growth in MAP Scores
The growth in MAP scores is used by Alpha School to measure the pace of learning vis-a-vis other schools. One user says that the MAP tests are not of good quality.
My Comment- I have not looked at the MAP tests, but this can be easily addressed by using/ developing better tests. There are definitely good tests available like the ones from Educational Initiatives.
Relevance of the Model to Low Socio-Economic Status (SES) Communities
One parent whose children went to the Brownsville campus of Alpha School believes that the Alpha School model could work for students from all backgrounds in theory, but they haven’t designed the model in a way that it works today for students from Low SES backgrounds.
My Comment- Even this critical parent feels that changes to this model in its specifics could work for students from all backgrounds. Whether Alpha School figures this out or not is not so important.
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