The AI School That’s Fixing Education | Alpha School
- Stephen McBride
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
On Joe Liemandt’s first day as Alpha School principal, he asked kids what would make them love school. The most common answer?
“Less school.”
Most principals would’ve ignored them. Joe rebuilt the entire school around their answer: a whole day’s lessons packed into a two-hour sprint, then the rest of the day spent building actual life skills.
Four years later and Alpha School students are scoring in the top 1% to 2% nationally in every subject. And 46% of them said they’d rather go to school than go on a vacation.
I recently caught up with Alpha School principal Joe Liemandt to see how he plans to take Alpha School from a handful of campuses to a national education overhaul.
In our interview you’ll hear:
The 1984 paper that made the classroom obsolete.
Why education tech has failed for the last 25 years.
How do you “code” motivation into software?
The $1,000 tablet that could school a billion kids.
Homeschooling’s hidden flaw.
—Stephen McBride
Stephen McBride is a co-founder of the Rational Optimist Society.
