As dissatisfied American parents look for education alternatives in the wake of pandemic-era frustrations with the status quo, the role of the teacher is rapidly evolving, with some private schools redefining the human element inside tech-laden classrooms.
At Alpha School in Brownsville, Texas, part of a growing chain of private institutions that utilize artificial intelligence to teach core subjects, instructors act as facilitators for pre-K through eighth grade students working to master customized 30-minute sessions.
Teachers throughout Alpha's network, which is expanding into New York City, Houston, Phoenix and elsewhere this fall, aim to mentor and motivate students while imparting a sense of autonomy as early as preschool.
"In public school, you very much just teach a blanket lesson, and you hope and cross your fingers that kids catch on," Samantha Hilton, an instructor at Alpha's Brownsville campus, told Newsweek during a visit to its campus.
"But you have kids who are behind and they don't understand what you're saying, you have kids who bright and on the dot and then you have kids who are advanced and they're bored."
Hilton claims Alpha's tailored curriculum allows students to become "limitless," creating individualized silos of learning in each classroom.
"Public schools need to have an open mind and really start leveraging the power of AI and individualized learning models," she said. "It would help students learn faster, more efficiently and I think they'd be more confident and loving of their school journey."
The Role of Teachers
While some experts told previously Newsweek the condensed, digital-first model should prompt discussions in public districts nationwide, most believe educators won't be replaced by AI — at least anytime soon.
Colleen Hroncich, a policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, praised Alpha's individualized approach that allows students to complete lessons in just a few hours, freeing up their afternoons for workshops on life skills. But teachers are still likely to play a major role in nearly every educational environment, she said.
"Having that personal connection is always going to be very important for a large number of parents," Hroncich said. "Certainly some will prefer the efficiency of the model, but even at a school like Alpha, they have guides there, they have adults there. So maybe their role is a little bit different than a teacher — they're not standing in front a classroom and lecturing — but they're still there supporting the kids, mentoring them and building relationships."
Whether at public or private schools, Hroncich said educators must realize that "one size doesn't fit all," with varying paths paving the way to success for each student.
"The ability to individualize and promote mastery versus seat time and letting kids progress through the content while measuring and tailoring their learning, I think that's very beneficial," Hroncich said.
"This has been in the works for a bit, but it certainly seems like it's jumped lightyears ahead recently and schools would do well to see what part of that they can incorporate even in a conventional school to try to be reaching kids at that more individualized level."
Staff at Alpha campuses had been previously known as "guides" instead of teachers, but now assume the more typical classroom moniker.
"They voted on that a few weeks ago to avoid confusion because the teachers still engage with student on multiple levels (social-emotional learning, motivation, goal-setting, support) in addition to 'teaching' them life skills," Alpha's communications director, Anna Davlantes, told Newsweek in a statement Thursday.
Alpha's website still identified staff as "guides" as of Friday, but claims they differ from traditional instructors.
"With AI-powered support, they focus on emotional growth, life skills, and fostering a passion for learning — giving students the time and freedom to thrive," the site reads.
Regardless of what Alpha students call adults in the room, public school districts nationwide could cull some of its innovative method, according to Michael Van Beek, director of research at the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which describes itself as a "free market" research institute.
"Customizing the curriculum and allowing students to progress in different subject areas at different paces based on their mastery of information — that would be a game changer for the way public schools typically operate," Van Beek said.
"The conventional model is to provide instruction to the entire group at once and then give them a high-stakes test on whether they retained the material and then you move along."
Van Beek said it's difficult to prove the true efficacy of Alpha's model, which promises students will learn twice as fast as their peers in just two hours of instruction per day, but the private chain's expansion appears to indicate that parents are pleased.
"It's hard to separate what is promotional material versus informational," Van Beek said. "Obviously these schools are marketing themselves to parents because they rely entirely on parents choosing to enroll and pay tuition."
Alpha fits into wide variety of alternative education models being sought by American parents who want more input and control, but its rise shouldn't be seen as a death knell for teachers, Van Beek said.
"I got the impression that teachers are absolutely essential to what they do as a school, but they have a slightly different role," Van Beek said. "They're less focused on delivering instruction and more focused on helping the student succeed. The role of teachers at [Alpha] are slightly different than the role at conventional public schools, but I don't think that means we need any less of them — or that the role is any less important."
Teachers at Alpha appear to serve more like "support staff" dedicated to empowering self-sufficient students, Van Beek added.
"A lot of teachers I know, that's what drives them, that's what they love about being a teacher — the relationships they have with the students," he said. "It's not actually the content they teach; it's more about the relationships."
Parents Seek Alternatives
Van Beek expects a wide variety of unorthodox models like Alpha to continue flourishing as an overwhelming majority of parents aren't satisfied with the overall state of schooling. Just six percent of respondents characterized the United States education system as "very good," far less than the 23 percent who deemed it to be "very bad," according to a YouGov survey conducted in November.
"Somewhat bad" led all replies at 26 percent.
Respondents also had mixed feelings about education systems in their local communities, with 29 percent describing them as "somewhat good," compared to 19 percent who reported the opposite, the poll of more than 2,200 U.S. adults found.
"Parents want more choices when it comes to educating their children," Van Beek said, referencing a rising interest in charter schools, school vouchers and other public-private programs.
"This is probably part of that larger trend, so I absolutely expect there are going to be more alternative, private models educating students and a lot of those models will focus on empowering parents."
Alpha's attempt to revolutionize education comes amid a new federal push to integrate AI into K-12 classrooms and beyond. President Trump signed an executive order last week that aspires to foster "foundational knowledge and skills" in youth to use and create the next generation of technology.
The directive also established the White House Task Force on AI Education and requires Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon to prioritize the use of AI in discretionary grant programs for teacher training.
"Education should prepare students for success in life, which means that American classrooms must better align their activities to meet the demands of accelerating innovation and a rapidly changing workforce," McMahon said in a statement last week.
"As artificial intelligence reshapes every industrial sector, it is vitally important that the next generation of students is prepared to leverage this technology in all aspects of their professional lives. The Trump Administration will lead the way in training our educators to foster early and responsible AI education in our classrooms to keep up American leadership in the global economy."