4 ms·
Unbound Academy hasn’t replaced teachers with AI
- rahimnathwani 1y agoThis is a good article. Dan Meyer, like his PhD supervisor Jo Boaler, is very much in the camp that traditional classroom education is good, and that improvements come by working through school districts, administrators and classroom teachers. I'm not saying this to cast doubt on any of the facts in the article. Just pointing out that Dan, in general, has a less optimistic view of AI in education, than I'd expect of the median HN commenter. That said, I'll share my thoughts on Alpha School, based on everything I've read (both things published by the school, and things I've read from parents online and in private forums): - the '2x growth' in their marketing is way oversold; their typical 4th grader isn't doing math at the level of a typical 8th grader.[0] - the '2 hours/day' in their marketing is oversold; students often work longer than that. - only 25% of their students use Math Academy. The rest use IXL or ALEKS. - in their charter school application, the amount they proposed charging for their software platform was unreasonable, given the minor role it plays in outcomes (10% according to Matt Bateman, who works there) [1] - the core idea of their 'timeback' platform (that monitors student activity in realtime via video camera and screen recording) is good, but I have not seen it and have no idea whether it's real or how good it is More of my thoughts from back in April: https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1912571014107787730 https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1912571014107787730 [0] https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1971804784475996469 https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1971804784475996469 https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1971817857286803873 https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1971817857286803873 [1] https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1912586493086036148 https://x.com/RahimNathwani/status/1912586493086036148
- arjie 1y agoThe intellectual pedigree actually explains everything. Jo Boaler is the one responsible for charging $5k/hr to advise schools to end middle school algebra. In an amusing confluence of concepts, Garry Tan (CEO of YC - whose site we're on) describes her as "infamous and disgraced"[0]. I don't know about that, but when I discovered that San Francisco schools weren't teaching algebra I was at first impressed that American children were doing Group Theory in 8th grade (something we only learn in the 12th standard in Tamil Nadu in India where I'm from) and figured moving that to 9th isn't a big deal only to find that they meant the basic stuff (linear equations and the like, what we learn in the 7th grade). Honestly, I can't take anyone seriously who would try so hard to set back children from learning what is fairly basic Mathematics at that age. Children are capable of learning this. Or at least a sufficiently large amount are that we should be teaching them to a high standard. For Alpha School, I think the Slate Star Codex review is likely more informative than this clearly polemic article. 0: https://x.com/garrytan/status/1953654484997169443 https://x.com/garrytan/status/1953654484997169443 tl;dr This is from the people who want to delay Mathematics education to later in a child's life (algebra to 9th grade onwards)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- tptacek 1y agoIronically, by taking the author of this article seriously, the preceding comment makes a more much persuasive critique.
- arjie 1y agoI suspect most people will land on this where their predilections already lead them. To me, the effort to delay Mathematics education is sufficiently bad that I can dismiss the rest of that school of education without much concern. If they are right, they are right by accident and there's not much to learn there. I know there are others like me out there, and for them a quick reminder of who this person is will probably be sufficient for them to escape reading (what they will believe to be) a low-quality post. Time isn't infinite after all. If you feel less convinced by this, it's simply that you're not in my audience. But I think it's probably worth sticking a tl;dr on the original. Let me do that.
- rahimnathwani 1y agoI usually regret reading Dan Meyer's articles, but this one I really enjoyed. It pointed at a couple of sources that led me down a rabbit hole back when I encountered it. I don't know whether Dan Meyer is in favour of delaying math education. I do know he favours delivering education in a school setting with in-person human teachers, but the latter doesn't imply the former. And he works on making really nice tools for exploring math: https://www.desmos.com/ https://www.desmos.com/
- tptacek 1y agoDesmos is really neat.
- vonneumannstan 1y ago[flagged]
- ge96 1y agoBeing a teacher nowadays must be tough, low pay, students that don't respect their teachers, low-attention span of kids due to tech.
- wagwang 1y agoDepending on the area you teach, you might just be a daycare worker.
- bboygravity 1y agoThis could be a quote from some Roman around the year 100 :p
- rahimnathwani 1y agoRegarding the 'low pay' part of your comment. Pay varies significantly between different states and cities. There are elementary school teachers in San Francisco whose total pay and benefits in 2023 were $150k or more: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Eld%20Classroom%20Teacher&y=2023 https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Eld%20C... And to compare those salaries to other jobs, you have to consider: - the typical academic achievement of those teachers and the alternative roles available to them, and - the fact that in another role they would have to work 25% more (50 weeks per year instead of 40 weeks per year)
- Swizec 1y ago> There are elementary school teachers in San Francisco whose total pay and benefits in 2023 were $150k or more: In 2025 San Francisco we have ads on buses advertising low income housing to people making less than $185k/year. https://x.com/Swizec/status/1972053995050119631 https://x.com/Swizec/status/1972053995050119631
- Waterluvian 1y agoAmerica really does sometimes looks like a first world and third world country in a trench coat.
- HALtheWise 1y agoThere's a lengthy, and quite good, deep-dive into Alpha School by a current parent here, for anyone interested. Spoiler, "AI" isn't that big a portion of what they're doing, but some of their insights and systems around student motivation are actually interesting and very effective. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-review-alpha-school https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-review-alpha-school
- jetrink 1y agoI heard one of the founders interviewed on the Hard Fork podcast[1] (which confusingly is primarily concerned with AI, rather than crypto.) I went in with very negative expectations, but came away with a positive impression and optimism that they might be onto something. As you say, AI is not core to the project. Instead, the focus is on using technology to facilitate individualized learning. It is true that teachers are 'replaced', but by humans whose job it is to keep the students focused and motivated, rather than to convey information. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/podcasts/hardfork-education-alpha-school.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/podcasts/hardfork-educati...
- rahimnathwani 1y agoI had the same reaction to this podcast: https://joincolossus.com/episode/building-alpha-school-and-the-future-of-education/ https://joincolossus.com/episode/building-alpha-school-and-t... I like the vision and believe in the good intentions. I don't know whether they've achieved much so far.
- polishdude20 1y agoI've had the same opinion since I was a TA. Most of the stuff the students learned was from the textbook. The value the instructors provide should above all be the motivation , the enthusiasm and the instilment of meaning into what the students are learning.
- cool_dude85 1y ago>Instead, the focus is on using technology to facilitate individualized learning. It is true that teachers are 'replaced', but by humans whose job it is to keep the students focused and motivated, rather than to convey information. I have good news for you. Tell your kids to get into a few fights, or get caught smoking weed in school too many times. They will be sent to an "alternative school" as punishment that uses this same insight - let the kids sit in front of a computer all day "learning" while a teacher nags them to quit falling asleep. In fact, they can do it for around 6 hours a day, three times better than this charter.
- coliveira 1y agoThe tech industry has played a big role in scamming society into changing education to conform to them, instead of the opposite. Nowadays, schools are trying to "educate" children to use technology and in the process they're making the other more important goals become secondary. Critical thinking, reading, writing, math skills, etc., are all going down because schools think it is more important to use the latest gadget and software.
- twothreeone 1y agoNot to go against the OP, but that headline has to be one of the dumbest framings I've seen in a while.. why would you want to replace human teachers with machines? There are an estimated 250 million kids going without any kind of schooling in the world [1], if AI could provide even the most basic kind of education to them it would be a net benefit. [1] https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1156366 https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1156366
- barbazoo 1y agoRealistically though, how would it ever come to that? This sounds like the least profitable thing anyone could do.
- twothreeone 1y agoCrazy, right? Doing a good thing that's a net positive for humankind is being punished by the market.. it's almost like markets don't foster beneficial long-term outcomes and we need other entities to enforce those.
- heavyset_go 1y agoThis is OLPC levels of naivety, chat bots aren't going to solve the socioeconomic and political problems that cause illiteracy.
- wat10000 1y agoIf you want to reach more kids with the same teachers, you need fewer teachers per student. Unbound has more teachers per student, so it's in the opposite direction from that.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- somethoughts 1y agoI feel like it'd be perfect if all these school replacements (home-school, charter school, online only schools) went after replacing the dearth of quality after school options. Really the only options for after school activities after graduating from elementary school are competitive sports, competitive math, competitive music, competitive chess, etc. which are pretty much all zero sum in nature. I'd love options for kids that let them gradually explore their interests to help them discover future vocational interests in a way that was beneficial to society such that they don't have an existential crisis when they hit senior year in high school and have to pick a college major.
- rahimnathwani 1y agopretty much all zero sum in nature. Doesn't every participant gain something from the practice and the competition, even if they wind up in last place?
- dingnuts 1y agoI mean you just can't take a comment seriously when it lists music class as a zero sum competition. About the only time that's true is if you're dead set on first chair in a specific orchestra, or think a career any less successful than Mick Jagger's would be a failure. Frankly I think that indicates the grandparent just didn't think very hard before leaving their comment.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoArticle from January-March.... how's progress been since? Didn't go so well in Pennsylvaniaa State rejects application for cyber charter school with AI teacher and two hours of daily class https://penncapital-star.com/education/state-rejects-application-for-cyber-charter-school-with-ai-teacher-and-two-hours-of-daily-class/ https://penncapital-star.com/education/state-rejects-applica...