Alpha School Fort Worth
Picture a school where students receive individualized attention, complete their academics in just two hours a day, and still manage to stay ahead of their peers. It sounds improbable, maybe even impossible.
At Alpha School Fort Worth, located at 3300 Bryant Irvin Rd., that’s exactly what’s happening. Students here are reaching academic milestones that typically take much longer to achieve, according to school officials.
How can this be?
The academic model for this school, a K–8 private institution, combines AI-driven one-on-one tutoring with rigorous academics and hands-on life skills.
The educators aren’t typical teachers either, although their mission is familiar — to guide, mentor, and inspire — but the way they do it sets this school apart.
Provided
Samantha DePalo, Lead Guide at the Alpha School Fort Worth campus.
“At Alpha, we allow human beings to do what human beings do best,” Samantha DePalo, Lead Guide at the Fort Worth campus, explains. “We coach, support, and develop students beyond academics, teaching life skills like leadership, teamwork, and public speaking.”
DePalo embodies the school’s vision. A Fulbright Scholar and former Teach For America corps member, she holds degrees in literacy, linguistics, mathematics, and neurodiversity. Over the past decade, she has taught high-level courses, coached educators worldwide, and designed schools that defy the one-size-fits-all model.
This concept can be traced back to Joe Liemandt, the principal and co-founder of Alpha School. He left Stanford in the late 1980s to launch Trilogy, an early AI company. After building Trilogy into a pioneering force in technology, he turned his attention to what he calls the biggest challenge of our time, “reinventing education.” While he holds the title of principal, his role is more of a visionary and strategic planner, shaping the school’s AI-driven platform and learning model. Liemandt argues that the 200-year-old “industrial model,” with one teacher in front of a classroom dictating lessons by age rather than ability, produces massive learning gaps, with students at even elite schools sometimes three to seven years behind, despite straight-A transcripts.
Liemandt’s solution is the Alpha School, co-founded with Mackenzie Price, the architect of the two-hour school day. At its core is an AI-powered platform that delivers personalized, mastery-based lessons grounded in decades of learning-science research. The system continuously adapts to each student’s performance, addressing gaps and helping build academic confidence. Founded in Austin in 2014, Alpha Schools now has 17 locations across the United States.
Alpha School Fort Worth
The school’s “Guides,” as instructors are called, are selected through a rigorous process including FBI-level background checks, cognitive testing that places them in the top 15%, and AI-driven evaluations of their interactions with students. They are paid over $100,000 a year to mentor children who, by design, are engaged learners.
"Here at Alpha Fort Worth, 90% of our students report that they would rather be at school than go on vacation," DePalo says. "In fact, most of our kids are actually getting pretty sad right now because it's Thanksgiving break next week and they don't want to be home from school."
Alpha School’s academic program is built around Price’s Two-Hour Learning model. In the morning, students work on individualized academic blocks powered by proprietary AI apps. These applications continuously analyze performance, identify gaps, and provide targeted lessons, essentially creating a personalized tutor for every child.
The rest of the day is devoted to life skills. Students participate in workshops covering public speaking, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, teamwork, leadership, and giving and receiving feedback. They also explore personal passion projects and are introduced to Ikigai, a Japanese concept connecting purpose, passion, and what the world needs.
Anna Davlantes, chief communications officer for Alpha Schools, notes that the model is expanding rapidly due to parent demand.
“We had a thousand people show up for the New York info session last week,” she shared. “In San Francisco, we’re expanding to three locations. Parents are seeing the world changing and demanding education systems that can keep up.”
Unlike traditional schools, Alpha students have no homework. Morning academic sessions, followed by life skills and project-based learning in the afternoon, keep students engaged and progressing. Students who arrived struggling with basic reading now thrive as proficient readers, and shy children gain confidence presenting TED-style talks to audiences of 100 or more.
Tuition is $40,000 per year for founding families, with plans to expand financial aid as the school grows.
For Fort Worth parents seeking an educational experience that combines accelerated academics with practical life skills, Alpha School offers a glimpse of the future of learning. And as DePalo says, “It’s about coaching, mentoring, building strong relationships with these kids, and helping them be the best versions of themselves.”
