Is it possible that Artificial Intelligence will put teachers and teacher unions out of business? Can you even imagine it?
FOX News reports:
AI-driven school expanding to major US cities despite union pushbackAn unconventional private school model that replaces traditional classroom lectures with artificial intelligence is gearing up for a massive nationwide expansion this fall, even as critics and powerful teachers unions sound the alarm.Alpha Schools, which says its students learn twice as fast as those in “standard” schools, is planning to open new campuses in Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, and several California hubs, including Santa Monica, Palo Alto and the East Bay. The school already operates in Austin, New York and Miami.The Alpha model is built on a “two-hour core” subject requirement. Students spend their mornings using adaptive AI software to master academics like math and English before transitioning to an afternoon of “life skills” workshops and project-based learning.According to the school, the results are significant:- Rapid Learning: Alpha claims its students learn at 2x the speed of traditional peers.- Elite Scores: The school reports a median SAT score of 1530 for its graduating class and a 1410 for its freshman class.- The Price Tag: In Chicago, the school is reportedly charging $55,000 in annual tuition.Despite the high-end branding, the school is facing a wall of skepticism from the education establishment. Researchers warn that the long-term effects of removing human teachers from the primary instructional role are unknown.”The research on personalized learning and [AI learning] is mixed at best,” Charles Logan, an education researcher at Northwestern’s Center for Responsible Technology, Policy and Public Dialogue, told Block Club Chicago. “I think the Alpha Schools’ approach to adaptive tutoring is like an open experiment [and] is not supported by critical research.”
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