carolinapublicpress.org – Kate Denning – 2025-08-05 09:17:00

by Kate Denning, Carolina Public Press
August 5, 2025

Alpha School, an “AI-powered” private school, is preparing to make its mark on Charlotte and Raleigh this year. 

North Carolina is part of an expansion into five additional states this fall for the private school company, which currently operates Texas and Florida. It plans to expand into Puerto Rico in 2026. 

How does the school operate, and what do education experts have to say about it?

[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ alerts and weekend roundup newsletters]

Co-founder MacKenzie Price told Carolina Public Press a typical day at Alpha begins with a 15 minute exercise to get students excited for the day and encourage a growth mindset. These exercises are led by Alpha’s classroom guides — at Alpha, there are no teachers. Then students transition to a two-hour learning block where they split that time between core subjects like math, reading, science and language. This is conducted entirely via AI software and apps.

By lunchtime, students are done with their academic work for the day. The rest of the day is spent learning life skills like leadership, public speaking, financial literacy and entrepreneurship through workshops led by the guides.

Alpha utilizes a mastery-based approach to learning, so children in the same classroom could all be on different levels of the same lesson depending on how each child moves through the material. The AI “tutor” is designed to recognize what each student is grasping well and what they need more work on. 

“Let’s say you only need five repetitions of a concept to understand that concept,” Price said. “I teach you a basic lesson on fractions, and then I give you five problems, and you show ‘yeah, I understand this well,’ then you move forward to the next concept. 

“But if I need 15 repetitions to understand that, then I shouldn’t only get five or 10. I should be able to get 15. That’s the beauty of personalized learning — each child does have a tutor that is going at their pace.”

Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools Stephanie Keaney said this is a strategy known as differentiation, which teachers have done for decades. But instead of teachers or Alpha’s guides, it’s artificial intelligence.

While students are taught a standard common core curriculum, they aren’t being given traditional grades. K-8 students’ progress is measured three times a year through the Northwest Evaluation Association’s MAP assessment test. High school students’ success is tracked by SAT scores and Advance Placement exams. 

The North Carolina campuses each come with a $45,000 price tag and will offer K-3 for the first year of operation with plans to expand to K-8 during its second year. Price said students are already enrolled in Charlotte and Raleigh, and families are eagerly awaiting their first day at Alpha.

Krista Glazewski, the executive director of NC State’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, said there is a long history of AI in the classroom. It’s important to acknowledge the historical use of intelligent tutoring software to not cause confusion and to be clear about some of its limitations, she said.

“Some of the limitations are that they have a narrow area of scope,” Glazewski said. “Intelligent tutoring isn’t always going to be sensitive to the kind of learning that might be happening, so it certainly would not be the only thing that you would want to use in a learning environment. 

“Alpha’s not saying that’s their only instructional model. In fact, if I’m bringing my lens to what they’re doing, I think they would argue that they are able to select from some impactful instructional models. … I would say they’re probably choosing the best from different instructional pedagogical models and applying them in some thoughtful and seemingly creative ways.”

Glazewski has been researching AI in education for more than a decade, but she is also a parent herself, so she understands hesitancy and skepticism about using AI for learning. 

When implementing more technology into education, she said it’s important to ensure schools are using it thoughtfully to meet specific goals and for the purpose it was intended. Schools should also take steps to ensure student privacy is protected.

“We are now going to have a generation of learners that are going to have metrics and instrumentation about their learning that could follow them throughout their whole schooling career, so we want to make sure that the right day data privacy agreements are in place, that those agreements are held if companies either fold or are reserved into other companies,” Glazewski said. 

“We want to make sure that over a child’s life in schooling, that they are not being monitored in a way that parents haven’t consented to and that their information is not being used in ways that, again, parents haven’t consented to.”

As a parent, Glazewski said she would be wondering what the guides are doing to support her child’s social emotional growth, curiosity and development. Price said since the guides are not directly teaching the academics, they are fully dedicated to providing motivational and emotional support to students.

When people hear of AI in education, they often think of robots in front of a classroom teaching students, Price said. But she said the technology actually makes it so this is the opposite of true.

“What artificial intelligence is allowing us to do is create personalized learning programs that meet a student at the level and pace that is best for that student, and it allows our teachers to be able to focus on that emotional and motivational aspect of a student, which is critical to creating a successful learner,” Price said. 

“What it’s really enabling is our teachers to be able to do what only humans can do, which is connect with the child and get to know that child and help them develop their interests and growth mindset strategies.”

When it comes to innovation in education, Glazewski said it’s critical to explore promising creative approaches to learning. But that also means asking questions like how can we ensure everyone has access to innovative instructional models, what would this look like if it was implemented on a broader level and what metrics are we basing “promising” models on?

Alpha markets eye-catching statistics like its students’ ability to learn two times as much content in two hours as their peers do and consistently placing in the 99th percentile. Glazewski said parents should consider whether these results are tied to true academic progress or an inherent selection bias that comes along with the school’s hefty tuition.

“At that kind of price point, what we can readily infer is that that’s a very narrow demographic,” Glazewski said. “So I would be interested in the question of selection effects here, whether these outcomes are due to the program itself or the background and the abilities of the learners that they’re admitting.”

Price isn’t yet sure whether Alpha’s North Carolina campuses will be able to collect school vouchers, which have been the subject of controversy after recent changes to North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarships. She is personally a fan of school choice, however, and is hopeful Alpha will be able to participate in the program. 

It’s possible North Carolina is seeing a rise in new education options like Alpha because of the loosening of restrictions on school vouchers, Glazewski said. Being a private institution also  means more freedom to implement innovative approaches and cutting edge technology that would take much longer to approve and fund in public districts. 

While every independent school is different and has its own approach, many private schools and educators are leveraging AI to better their classrooms in some way, Keaney said. Because independent schools are consistently smaller than an entire public school district, they have the opportunity to be more nimble and offer more autonomy to teachers in the classroom.

Artificial intelligence sometimes scares people off, but Price said it’s the most exciting development in education right now because of its benefits to both students and teachers and the ability to give back the most valuable resource — time.

“There has never been a more exciting time to be a five year old than now because of what’s going to be available through artificial intelligence,” Price said. 

“I also think this is going to be the best era for teachers, because teachers are finally going to be freed up to be able to spend their time doing what they do best, which is connect with students, instead of having to plan time doing lecturing and lesson planning and grading papers and homework. This is a really wonderful time in education.”

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post AI-powered private school set to open NC campuses appeared first on carolinapublicpress.org

---

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article presents an informative and balanced overview of the AI-powered private school Alpha School without showing a clear political leaning. It covers the potential benefits of AI in education, such as personalized learning and increased teacher-student interaction, while also addressing concerns like access inequality, data privacy, and skepticism about the use of AI. The discussion of school vouchers is presented with factual context and notes the controversy without endorsing a specific viewpoint. Overall, the coverage is objective and analytical, reflecting a centrist stance focused on education innovation rather than political ideology.

www.youtube.com – WPDE ABC15 – 2025-08-05 07:03:46

SUMMARY: Texas House Democrats fled the state to break quorum and block a vote on new congressional maps, prompting Governor Greg Abbott to order their arrests and a bribery investigation. Republican leaders issued civil arrest warrants for 57 missing Democrats, who mostly remain out of state where Texas law enforcement cannot compel their return. Democrats protest that the redistricting plan dilutes minority voting power and adds Republican seats. Protests occurred outside the governor’s mansion, with Democrats accusing Abbott of ignoring flood relief efforts to focus on political maps. Each absent lawmaker faces daily fines, but arrests and prosecutions are deemed unlikely.

Just hours after more than 50 Texas House Democrats fled the state to block a redistricting vote, Texas House leadership and Gov. Greg Abbott escalated efforts to force them back, authorizing civil arrest warrants and calling for an investigation into possible bribery.

On Monday, the Texas House voted 85 to 6 to issue civil warrants targeting absent Democratic members who broke quorum. House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R–Lubbock) signed the warrants after a motion for a “call of the House” was approved.

Read more: https://wpde.com/news/nation-world/amid-redistricting-protest-abbott-orders-arrests-and-bribery-probe-of-house-democrats#
_______________
Stay up to date with our social media:

WPDE on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WPDEABC15/
WPDE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wpdeabc15
Subscribe to WPDE on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn0sxo5Ocp8eSFqr9F1URpg/?sub_confirmation=1

Daily News Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCFE982C7D59E70C1

For more information, visit https://wpde.com/

Have a news tip? Send it directly to us:

Email us: abc15news@wpde.com
Call the Newsroom: 843.487.3001

WPDE is a SC based station and an ABC Television affiliate owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group. WWMB is a SC based station and a CW Television affiliate owned and operated by Howard Stirk Holdings and receives certain services from an affiliation of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

#WPDE #ABC15News #ABC15 #WPDE15 #MyrtleBeach #trending #texas #redistricting #gregabbott #housedemocrats

Source

carolinapublicpress.org – Jane Winik Sartwell – 2025-08-04 08:24:00

by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press
August 4, 2025

When Tropical Depression Chantal struck Moore County in early July, the deluge of rain took out a food bank, a golf course, a cemetery, a shopping center, hiking trails, homes and major roads. 

The storm exposed the vulnerability of Moore County’s aging infrastructure in the face of intense weather. Dams built decades ago failed, culverts designed for lighter rainfall were overwhelmed and roads crumbled under floodwaters. 

A month later, the county is still recovering. True resilience may require more than just repairs — substantial upgrades may be necessary in many cases. It remains unclear, however, whether the county will receive any disaster assistance from the state.

[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ alerts and weekend roundup newsletters]

The system dumped nearly 10 inches of rain in a matter of hours the night of Jul. 6. It was the worst storm the region has seen since Hurricane Fran in 1996, county officials told Carolina Public Press. Thousands lost power and 13 swift water rescues were conducted on flooded roads. 

“Chantal was different: there was so much rain and so much power,” said Emily Yopp, town manager of Carthage, Moore’s county seat. 

Thankfully, no fatalities occurred as a result of the storm in Moore County. Even so, the ripple effects have the potential to threaten residents’ livelihoods. 

The road leading to the Food Bank of Central & Western North Carolina in Southern Pines sustained serious damage, impacting the organization’s operations for days. 

“Hunger is already at a crisis point in Moore County,” Jason Kanawati Stephany, spokesperson for the Food Bank of Central & Western North Carolina, told CPP.

“The recent storm only made challenges worse .… More than 41,000 people in the Sandhills lack the resources to consistently keep food on the table .… Between the loss of food, property, and other costly disruptions, major storms like Chantal push many families over the edge.”

Beyond hunger, the storm has the potential to create a cascade of public-health risks that officials are still monitoring. Matthew Garner, health director for Moore County, said his department is watching for longer-term health impacts from the flooding.

Well contamination, dangerous mold growth in homes and businesses, mosquito-borne diseases: all of these are secondary impacts of flooding that can creep up on people, Garner said. He is also worried about road closures, which can impact residents’ ability to access medical care.

In addition to public health, economic reverberations are still sounding through the area. Moore County’s golf courses — a major economic driver for the region — also took a hit.

A dam failed on Longleaf Golf Course in Southern Pines, flooding and eroding the course and damaging multiple homes downstream. That dam is labeled as high-hazard by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, and has been for years. “High-hazard” refers to the damage that will occur if the dam fails, not to the chances of it failing. 

Nearly every dam in the immediate area is also high-hazard. Crystal Lake Dam in Lakeview also failed, causing severe flooding on Camp Easter Road. 

“Through the good work of our public utilities department we were able to draw the water in Crystal Lake down quickly enough that we didn’t lose the entire lake,” said Tom Adams, a Moore County commissioner. “Still, there are homes and piers around the lake that are damaged.”

The county commissioners will discuss a resolution asking the General Assembly to ensure the Crystal Lake Dam and Camp Easter Road are restored as quickly as possible, according to county manager Wayne Vest.

A retaining wall also failed on Brucewood Road in Southern Pines, flooding a shopping center. The Kohl’s location in that plaza was evacuated. 

These failures reflect a countrywide struggle with aging infrastructure.

“A lot of our infrastructure (in the county) is many, many years old,” Yopp said. “We’re starting to realize that we’re seeing more rain and more storms, and that we need to upgrade these dams, these pipes, these drain systems, these culverts to accommodate all this extra rain.”

The town of Southern Pines is labelling Chantal a “a 500- to 1,000-year flood event, meaning the storm’s severity far exceeded the capacity of most natural and engineered systems to manage stormwater.”

Chantal’s intensity explains why so many systems failed, but as severe flooding events appear to get more common, the status quo may not be good enough.

The county is still working to assess the total dollar amount of damage from Chantal. The preliminary damage assessment has now closed. Moore County Chamber of Commerce CEO Linda Parsons is concerned that the county will not qualify for state assistance, but that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, residents continue to navigate the storm’s aftermath. For them, the question of how quickly Moore County can upgrade its aging infrastructure is essential to whether they can withstand the next storm.

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Moore County, NC, a month after Chantal damage appeared first on carolinapublicpress.org

---

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article primarily provides a factual and detailed account of the effects of Tropical Depression Chantal on Moore County’s infrastructure, economy, and public health. It focuses on reporting the storm’s damage, the challenges faced by local officials and residents, and the need for infrastructure upgrades without advancing a clear ideological agenda. The language is neutral and emphasizes local government responses and community impacts, avoiding partisan framing or political commentary. The piece is consistent with balanced, issue-focused journalism rather than promoting a particular political viewpoint.