Todd Feathers, for Wired, reports on Alpha School, an education system for children that emphasizes software and optimizing metrics over giving a nine-year-old a snack.
But in interviews with WIRED, more than a dozen former employees, students, and parents say what they expected from Alpha School wasn’t what it delivered. Former “guides” from different campuses, many of whom requested anonymity because they fear negative consequences, say Alpha’s educational philosophy was driven by software metrics and, sometimes, Liemandt’s whims. One guide said they believed Alpha wanted to prepare students for a hypercompetitive “late capitalism, dog-eat-dog” environment. Parents like Kristine Barrios say the school impacted their children, left them with glaring gaps in their education, and is now using them to sell a story of success. “They set her up for failure,” Barrios says, and then it felt like “they punished her for failing.”
If you’re going to optimize, you better make sure you’re adjusting for the right things.
