Alpha School, an AI-driven private school chain that promises to teach kids core academics in two hours a day, plans to open a Seattle-area location in Kirkland this fall and will run its first local weekly summer programs on Microsoft’s Redmond campus starting in late June.
The approach frees up the rest of the day for a program of life skills, projects, and other character-building activities, which is another core part of Alpha School’s pitch. There’s no homework, by design, to give kids time for sports and other pursuits outside of school.
For the fall, Alpha School has secured space in a building just east of Google’s Kirkland campus, at 620 Fifth Ave. S., and has started taking applications. The initial campus has capacity for up to 150 students.
Alpha School co-founder MacKenzie Price and team have been expanding the Austin-based chain across the country. A driving force behind the school is tech entrepreneur Joe Liemandt, founder of the software company Trilogy and the private-equity firm ESW Capital.
In an interview, Price said she has family in the Seattle area and considers the region “very forward-thinking” when it comes to innovation and valuing education. Alpha School has seen interest from people in the region for a while, but real estate can create a challenge, she said, so they were excited when they were able to secure the Kirkland property.
The school’s use of screens and AI naturally attracts questions and some criticism, but Price said skepticism about the role of technology misses an important distinction.
“There’s a huge difference between students scrolling TikTok or watching cartoons or playing video games all day, and receiving a one-to-one, mastery-based tutoring experience,” she said. “It’s the idea of proactive, engaged interaction, as opposed to passive consumption.”
Price drew a sharp line against chatbots — “cheat bots,” she called them — which Alpha keeps out of its core instruction. Instead, she said, the software diagnoses what each student has and hasn’t mastered, then delivers lessons adjusted to their level and pace.
Alpha calls the adults in its classrooms “guides” rather than teachers, and pays them above typical teacher salaries. The schools run on a 5-to-1 student-to-guide ratio. Guides aren’t providing academic instruction, Price said, but instead focus on mentorship and motivation while the technology handles the lessons.
The model has its critics. Some educators have questioned Alpha School’s claims, arguing that learning can’t be accelerated as dramatically as Alpha says, and that its strong outcomes may reflect the students it enrolls as much as its methods.
Alpha stands by its results, providing data showing its students in the top percentiles on the NWEA MAP, a widely used standardized test taken by students nationwide.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has shown interest in the concept, bringing it up during a recent podcast taping in conjunction with the company’s Build developer conference. Asked about AI and education, Nadella mentioned meeting some of the people behind Alpha School to learn about their approach, calling it fascinating to rethink what education will look like in the future.
“Maybe the next big startup and success story could be someone who builds a new university or a new pedagogy,” Nadella said on the crossover of the No Priors and Latent Space podcasts.
The Microsoft connection came through Caitlin McCabe, vice president and chief of staff to Nadella. She initially got involved as a parent of young children drawn to Alpha’s model, not in her Microsoft role, advocating for the school to come to the region and helping connect it with interested families.
Tuition for the fall in Kirkland hasn’t been decided, according to Alpha School officials, but “founding families” who sign up for the first year will get a $10,000 discount.
The weekly summer programs on Microsoft’s Redmond campus will run for eight weeks, from late June to late August. They’re open to the public at $1,500 a week, with Microsoft employees getting a 50% discount per child. The idea is to give students and families a sense of what Alpha School is like, with an experience that mirrors the typical day during the school year.
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