While many schools are busy drafting AI integration policies and layering coding lessons alongside phonics, a growing network of schools is making a quantum leap. I discovered them awhile ago and I have been watching them from a distance, waiting to see how they would evolve. I am happy to share that they have not been disappointed. They aren't just tweaking the old system — they are boldly redefining what is worth learning and how it should be taught.

Thank goodness….Because they recognize the real problems that even some of the best schools dance around:

• Differentiation by one adult for 25 kids isn’t truly happening.
  

• Test scores show meager improvement for many students.
  

• Students' emotional well-being and happiness are suffering.
  

• Passion projects — real-world, problem-solving experiences — are often more teacher driven than student inspired.
  

These aren’t assumptions — the data is overwhelming.
 

Students today are often disengaged and uninspired by traditional learning experiences and distracted by digital communities that weigh on their emotional well being in addition to the lackluster of learning in programs that never allow the pursuit of their interests or passions
 

In 2022, Educational Psychology published a meta-analysis revealing that students retain only 50% of material taught in traditional classrooms after just 24 hours.  Since  Post-COVID, we’re facing even greater knowledge gaps, social-emotional struggles, and widening learning disparities. The challenges are real — and urgent.

A New Approach: Alpha Schools Leading the Way

But some are leaping ahead.

Alpha Schools has created a model that’s catching fire — because it works and inspires.

At Alpha Schools, students work with an AI tutor platform  to complete 2 hours of personalized academic work and learn 2x faster each day —  because the program is custom-tailored to their learning needs.. The rest of student time is spent engaging in project-based learning: entrepreneurship, real-world problem solving, and passion-driven projects.

In one school, a group of 5th graders is learning the art of business by running their own Airbnb! And they aren’t an anomaly. Supported by coaches, students explore passion projects that give real meaning to their learning.

What is the secret sauce?
It is quite simple. Authentic personalized instruction specifically targeted where the student is in subjects with precise scaffolding — not 6 hours of generalized, teacher-directed lessons.
Alpha Schools use AI tutors to ensure every student has a tailored, responsive learning plan — one that is monitored and adjusted daily to meet real progress goals.

What Does This Mean for Us?

It begs the question:

How long can we continue teaching kids through outdated programs?

Alpha Schools — and even many forward-thinking businesses — recognize that change must happen now. To be fair, we have seen organizations offering alternative programs like PBLworks advocating and supporting project-based learning in schools.  However, today PBL alone is not enough. What is more, it is not just elementary schools in question. Colleges are under great scrutiny too. Just last week Palantir announced the launch of a scholarship program paying $5,400 to high school students not to go to college and to come work directly for them as an internship. Palantir asserted that  college is failing kids today.

However, we all have a responsibility as advocates to simply the complexity of learning so are kids are not a lost generation. As parents and thought leaders, we have a role to play in championing the long-overdue changes in education, where our kids are attending school.

The more I reflect about it,  I find myself asking:

Is elementary school — the way it exists today — still relevant?

Maybe it’s time we dared to find a better way.

Sources:

Alpha School. "The Program." Alpha School, https://alpha.school/the-program/#learn. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

2 Hour Learning. "Home." 2 Hour Learning, https://2hourlearning.com/. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

💡 Parent / Caregiver Coaching Notes

If you’re a parent, educator, or community leader, it’s time to reflect:

✅ What skills will my child actually need to thrive in the world they are entering — not the world I grew up in?

✅  .Am I advocating for a learning environment that is preparing my child for an AI-influenced future?

✅ What am I willing to challenge, question, or support to ensure my child isn't left behind?

✅ Is my child's school fostering creativity, passion, and real-world problem solving — or just teaching for test scores?

✅ How can I help my child discover not just what they know — but who they are becoming?