MacKenzie Price is using technology to rethink education.

She launched Alpha School in Austin in 2014 with a simple premise: kids don't need all day to learn the basics. Today it operates in major cities across the country and just opened enrollment in Chicago for fall 2026.

I sat down with MacKenzie to talk about the model, the skeptics, and what it means for a city like Chicago where only 23% of 4th graders are proficient in reading.

Here’s our conversation:

MP: The initial idea to launch Alpha Schools had nothing to do with AI. It was born from watching my daughter lose her love of learning.

She went from a kid who couldn't wait to go to school to one who hated going. "It's so boring," she'd say. When she finally told me she didn't want to go to school anymore, it was a wake-up call. How was it possible that a bright, naturally curious, energetic kid got the life sucked out of her, by school?

That question led me to rethink education. Why are children in classrooms all doing the same thing at the same pace when every child learns differently? Why does 'core curriculum' drag out to fill most of the school day? Why don't we teach critical life skills, like financial literacy and entrepreneurship in K-12 education?

At Alpha, we create a personal learning plan for every kid, one that consolidates the '3 Rs:' reading, writing and arithmetic into a shorter window. Our students then have time for the '4 Cs:' communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. Kids get to lean into their passions at Alpha, while learning the 'soft skills' that actually prepare them for real life.

That was the thesis in 2014. It's still the thesis today.

What changed is that technology finally caught up. AI makes truly personalized learning possible. Students move at their own pace, get real-time feedback and receive individualized support instead of being forced through the same path as everyone else.

The exciting part isn't acceleration. It's what becomes possible when kids don't have to be trapped in an all-day, academic grind. They get more freedom, more ownership, more mentorship -- and yes, learning actually becomes fun.

MP: I 100% agree that the teacher-student relationship is irreplaceable. That's exactly why we don't replace it.

We maintain roughly a 5:1 student-to-adult ratio. We call our teachers Guides. They start at six-figure salaries and they are central to how this model works. AI handles lesson delivery. Guides handle what matters most: connection, motivation, mentorship, emotional support, and teaching life skills. They meet one-on-one with students regularly and genuinely get to know them to understand how they learn and what they're passionate about. We've reinvented the teacher's role; we have not eliminated it.

On validation: our students take the MAP assessment, the same nationally normed third-party test used in traditional schools. Alpha students score in the top 2% nationally across core subjects. This year's graduating class averaged a 1545 on their SAT. They've been accepted to schools like Stanford, Northwestern, Berkeley, and NYU.

As for the skeptics, some of the most respected learning scientists in the world aren't among them. Carl Hendrick, one of the leading voices in learning science, actively works with us to develop our approach. Others have reviewed the model and come away with a positive outlook.

Here's what I'd push back on: critics who focus on 'the AI' are missing the point. They're looking in the wrong place. Technology isn't the solution. A great learning model is. AI just made personalized learning possible for every student.

MP: The day kicks off with Morning Launch. Think 'Tony Robbins' for kids. It's typically something active, energizing and fun. It sets the tone and gets kids in the right headspace, with positive energy flowing. Our students love this part of their day.

Then comes the academic block. For about two hours, students work on math, reading, writing, and science through their personalized AI platform, going at their own pace. There's no sitting through lessons they've already mastered and no getting left behind when something isn't clicking yet. They move on when they're ready, not when the bell rings.

By late morning, academics are done. Laptops close.

The rest of the day is devoted to life skills, interactive, project-based workshops -- the kinds of experiences that prepare students for the real world. Some students might be in a public speaking workshop learning how to advocate for themselves or to speak engagingly about something they're passionate about. Another class might divide up, working in teams to solve a problem. Our middle school kids built and ran a food truck to learn about entrepreneurship and financial literacy. There are so many interactive options.

Guides are there mentoring, coaching, setting goals, providing feedback and working one-on-one with students. They support kids academically, emotionally and personally, every step of the way. Here's the thing: when academics are personalized, kids don't need all day to sit in lecture-based classrooms, moving at the pace of the middle.

That's the unlock. Kids master academics more efficiently and suddenly there's time for everything else that matters.

MP: It's important to know that about 40% of our Guides come from education backgrounds. We just don't hire primarily for subject expertise, because Guides aren't delivering academic instruction. AI handles that.

We hire for something different: Can this person motivate a kid? Build trust? Show up for a student on a hard day? Coach them to believe in what's possible? Help them build confidence and achieve growth? Inspire them to aim higher and support them emotionally? That's the job.

So we look across education, coaching, youth development, entrepreneurship and business. The common thread is people who are exceptional at inspiring and supporting others.

Training reflects that. Guides learn coaching, motivation, emotional support, goal setting, workshop design and social-emotional development. They are background checked and need to pass a CCAT exam, proving they are critical thinkers themselves.

And we invest in keeping them. Our retention rate is 98%. Guides start at $100,000. Lead Guides earn more. I've always believed educators are underappreciated, overworked, and underpaid. At Alpha, we value and support our Guides because we believe they're the drivers of student success, more than anything else.

MP: It's a fair question, and we think about it a lot. The reason we use MAP growth is because it measures growth, not just where a student starts. We're less interested in "What score did they get?" and more interested in "How much progress did they make?" Students come to Alpha, often 3-5 years behind in their learning (yes, even from elite private schools) and they're able to catch up and forge ahead because our system is built on individual mastery.

You don't move on until you understand the material. You don't get pulled forward by the class or held back by it, either. That's not a new idea, by the way. It's rooted in decades of learning science. It just hasn't been possible to achieve with this degree of accuracy until now.

Something else that may surprise you -- Alpha doesn't select students based on test scores or grades. What matters to us is what happens after kids get here and how they can be motivated to achieve their own personal goals.

Academics are only part of that story. If a student grows academically and also becomes more confident, more independent, a better communicator, a better problem solver, more capable of working with others, that's a real measure of success. We want kids to become lifelong learners, who think for themselves and are genuinely prepared for the future they're walking into.

MP: We use a mix of best-in-class learning tools and our own proprietary technology. At the center is TimeBack, our central dashboard that delivers personalized pacing, mastery tracking, and real-time feedback for every student.

When people hear "AI school" they picture chatbots. We don't use them for academics. I always say, "chatbots are cheatbots." They let kids shortcut learning instead of doing the thinking. Our students use technology as a thinking partner, not a shortcut. When a student hits a wall, the Guide steps in, whether that's academic, emotional, or just needing someone to believe in them that day.

MP: My message would be: you are right to demand better. Alpha isn't affordable for every family today, and I won't pretend otherwise. But our mission was never to build something for a few students. Our mission is to reimagine education and reach a billion students.

We know a better model exists and this will become more accessible over time through scholarships, partnerships, and lower-cost technology.

Every kid deserves a school that teaches the '3 Rs' and the '4 Cs': communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Every kid deserves a place where they can build a strong academic foundation, discover their unique aptitudes, pursue their passions and develop the skills for future success. Let's face it, school should prepare kids for life, not just the next grade.

I think parents in Chicago are searching for the same thing as parents everywhere. A school where kids learn, grow, build confidence and develop life skills -- a place where they can carve their path in life, while doing things they never thought possible. We believe kids are limitless and they prove us right, every single day.

MP: I'd say skepticism is expected. This is a complete reimagination of education, and how you educate your child is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make. If someone had told me years ago that kids could finish academics in two hours, spend afternoons building businesses, learning life skills, launching projects and actually love going to school, I probably wouldn't have believed it either.

We always say don't take our word for it. Talk to our students. Ask them what they're building. Watch them explain their goals. Meet the Guides. See how intentionally they approach their work. See how much kids love learning when it's done this way.

Most parents walk in expecting to see 'cool tech' at the 'AI school' but they leave talking about the things Alpha kids can do and how engaged they are in school. We always joke that when you ask an Alpha kid how their day was, they're likely to go on for an hour.

It's encouraging to see major thought leaders engage with our model like 'The Godfather of AI' Geoffrey Hinton, co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. He's fairly cautionary about AI's potential for harm, but singled out Alpha's use of AI as one of the most "forward-thinking" and "promising" applications of the technology he's seen.

There's never been a more exciting time to be a 5-year-old.

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