Alpha School’s Chicago campus says students complete core academics in a two-hour AI-supported block before workshops, while researchers question what its published test-score claims can establish.
The school lists the campus for pre-K through eighth grade and tuition at $55,000. CBS News reported that the tuition is annual and that the campus opened in fall 2026, making the listed price a cost for families who enroll.
Alpha says the two hours cover academic work, not the full school day. In an announcement about its TimeBack platform, co-founder MacKenzie Price described the rest of the day as time for group activities, including teamwork, financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
Adults also work with students. Alpha calls them “guides” and says they lead a morning gathering and coach students through the day. CBS News reported that guides also teach life-skills activities. A February 2026 National Education Policy Center essay said roughly a third of Alpha’s guides have credentials or training in education.
Alpha’s 2 Hour Learning results page says its classes score in the top 1% to 2% across subjects, citing Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) results from spring 2023 and fall 2024. The Chicago campus page makes a separate claim that its classes rank in the top 1% nationally.
Scientific American reported that Alpha had not made the data behind its claims public. Andrew McEachin, an education policy researcher at Educational Testing Service who helped develop the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) MAP system, told the magazine that the reports do not establish why Alpha’s scores are at that level.
Brookings senior fellow Rebecca Winthrop told CBS News, “Parents should know that this is an experimental model.”
