The K-12 Classroom Experience in the Age of Personalized Learning — The Possibility Report

In the classrooms of the future, new technology, as well as principles of flexibility and personalization, will shape the K-12 experience.

Imagine this — it’s the beginning of the school year and you’re sitting with an ambitious student. This student can’t wait to tackle the new and challenging coursework ahead of them. In one version of the conversation, you tell the student, “You’ll have a great year if you just work hard and turn in your assignments on time.” In another version, you give the student the curriculum for the whole year and ask, “How much can you do in the next seven weeks?”

What’s the difference? In the first version, you take away the student’s control. You limit them to…

You can feel the excitement in the building each time MAP testing comes around. Students have been working hard in their apps, and the MAP test is an opportunity for them to show their progress to their parents, their Guides, and — most importantly — themselves.

Alpha MAP Results

As a part of Alpha’s standard MAP testing process, we’re dedicated to transparently sharing information with Alpha families and the broader community. Here is a summary of our Fall 2020 MAP results:

Achievement Percentiles — All Alpha Students

Compared to Other Schools

Parents often ask how Alpha’s results stack up against…

Alpha is not a typical school. Because we use adaptive learning apps, every student is able to progress along an individualized pathway at their own speed. Our approach provides a custom learning experience designed to address the unique needs of each student. The admissions process therefore, doesn’t follow the standard, “Take a test, provide a writing sample, send recommendation letters, wait half a year,” pattern that most private schools follow. We do things our own (wackier!) way around here.

Instead, Alpha’s admissions process focuses on metrics that matter — does a student demonstrate behaviors that are consistent with success at…

When the State of Texas required schools to close physical campuses, Alpha moved into “Alpha Anywhere,” a new, remote version of our program. Alpha Anywhere was a real-life test that required students to collectively demonstrate the life skills they’ve learned.

Life skills are one of the three commitments we make to families. Self agency, focus, and intensity are among our core life skills, and Alpha Anywhere particularly tested students in these areas. The asynchronous nature of remote schooling meant that successful academic performance relied on students being self-agents. The remote setting also required students to adapt to doing work at…

Let’s talk about Level 4.

While Alpha’s three commitments to love of school, 2x learning, and life skills will still steer our L4 program, we are adding additional commitments to make sure all L4 students can get into the best universities in the country.

L4 includes the following commitments:

1. All students will achieve a 1500 or greater on the SAT
2. All students will score a “5” on at least 3 AP tests
3. All students will get into a top 20 university

Just as the three original commitments are the most ambitious goals for any primary/middle school in the country, these…

Students worked hard during Alpha Anywhere. Despite the physical campus closure in Sessions 4 and 5, Alpha students stayed focused on their core skills work. They not only kept pace with Session 3, but completed an average of 20% more lessons per week.

This effort made it even more important for students to have a chance to show their hard work and academic progress at the end of the year. While many schools declared remote MAP testing impractical — or even impossible — Alpha students closed out the school year with the Spring 2020 MAP test at home.

And we’re…

Alpha’s first promise to students and families is that kids will love coming to school. COVID-19 presented us with a new challenge: how can we maintain love of school when kids can’t come to school?

Our strategy for maintaining students’ love of school was outlined in our note to parents after the onset of the pandemic. Our approach was built on two pillars:

1. Let students design their own schedule
2. Leave academic coaching to students’ Guides, who held 1:1 video chats with every student every day

To measure our success or failure, we did what we always do: we asked kids…