A private school that teaches core subjects with artificial intelligence and no teachers opened in Chicago on Tuesday, September 8, ABC7 Chicago reported. Alpha Chicago serves students from pre-K through eighth grade at 350 E. South Water St., in the Loop's Lakeshore East area, and charges $55,000 a year.
It is the first Illinois location for Alpha, a chain of private schools founded in Austin, Texas, in 2014 by Mackenzie Price. The company operates in at least 15 other states and Puerto Rico, NBC Chicago reported. allk12 has also covered AI-driven schools opening in Boston and Oklahoma.
The school runs on what Alpha calls its two-hour learning model. Students spend about two hours on core academics using personalized software and then move on to workshops in public speaking, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and other skills for the rest of a full school day. Alpha says the software lets students work at their own pace and move on once they master a concept.
"The goal is not to reduce academic rigor. Instead, the goal is to remove inefficiencies from the traditional classroom model," the school's website says.
The adults in the room are called guides. According to Alpha, they spend their time mentoring students, supporting their emotional development, and coaching leadership skills, while AI and adaptive software handle routine instruction.
Price told Block Club Chicago in March that guides need a bachelor's degree and a background check but not an education degree, and that salaries start at $100,000. "They're not required to be subject-matter experts in terms of teaching students, because our AI platform is able to provide that tutoring experience," she said. Students who get stuck can join a video call with one of Alpha's academic experts.
At the time, Price said the school would serve 100 students in kindergarten through eighth grade to start. The opening-day reports did not say how many students enrolled.
Alpha points to its own survey of about 1,000 students at its schools, in which 94% said they love school, Price told Block Club. Researchers say there is limited evidence that the model works, Block Club reported.
The opening comes as Chicago debates AI in public schools. Chicago Public Schools lets teachers use district-approved AI tools as a supplemental resource but not as the main way students are taught. "Chicago Public Schools welcomes the promising innovation of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning, while safeguarding the development of students' foundational skills and critical thinking," district spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus said in a statement to Block Club. NBC Chicago reported that a group of parents recently pushed for a pledge limiting AI use in the district.
Other big-city systems are going further. New York City put a one-year ban on student-facing AI for pre-K through eighth grade this fall.
Chicago Public Schools enrolls 324,130 students in 621 schools, according to allk12's analysis of federal data.
Sources
ABC7 Chicago: Alpha Chicago opens as first AI school in city without teachers
NBC Chicago: First AI-driven, teacher-free school in Chicago opens with $55,000 annual tuition
Block Club Chicago: An AI school, with no teachers, to open in Chicago this fall
Enrollment figures from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
