All week people have emailed me telling me that Alpha School selects for the top 1%.
While I can't speak to Alpha School's application process, I can say my kids test similarly to theirs on standardized tests like the PSAT when it comes to math ... and it's 100% because they use/d AI tutors and the tech stack we talk about in this episode (Prodigy/Synthesis Tutor/Math Academy/Physics Graph).
I realize it's uncomfortable to ask why AI improves results over teachers. And it's worth exploring.
Some of my thoughts ...
The "problem" with grades 4-12 of Math, is that most teachers "teach the grade" and math is cumulative. So, if you didn't learn something from grade 6, you're in a lot of trouble by the time you get to grade 8.
With very few exceptions, your grade 8 teacher is not going to teach you (or the entire class) grade 6 math and as a student in grade 8, you'll resist it if you know it's grade 6.
One of the primary reasons that AI is better is that it simply teaches you what you need to know, regardless of your grade level.
It says you don't know X, and you need to know X to do this problem, so let's learn X. And it never tells you that it's grade 6 and you should have learned this years ago, so you just learn X.
Another problem is the way maths are taught now.
In a lot of schools, including my kids, they never had to "memorize" multiplication tables. And if you don't know them, it's ok. That sounds all fine and dandy, until you realize it takes up a lot of working memory in grades 8-12 -- working memory you need for other things on the problem. We only have so many working memory slots.
It sucks but most "improvements" to education over the past 20 years, have had negative impacts on objective learning.
The biggest thing we can do in this moment is raise the bar on what we expect from kids, focus on what works based on evidence, and make AI tutors free to the bottom 75% of each math class today.
If you're a parent, this is a must listen. (Even if you disagree with the conclusions).
My conversation with
@jliemandt on why the future of education is better than you think.
0:00 The current education system
7:01 What makes Alpha School different
11:01 What are the results
23:20 Current classroom struggles
26:40 What does mastery mean?
35:37 Changing the education system
39:19 Teaching through AI
44:27 How do you solve motivation?
57:01 What makes a good teacher?
1:01:04 Coaching
1:05:17 What life skills matter?
1:08:18 Doing hard things
1:13:25 AI Monitoring
1:21:08 Effort vs. IQ
1:24:40 What happens after Alpha School?
1:38:21 The Genius of Jack Welch
1:45:49 Trilogy IPO: the choice to not go public
1:51:40 Physical vs. virtual learning
2:03:18 Does Paying Kids To Learn work?
2:11:01 What Is Success For You?
(Includes paid partnerships)