Eli Davis: Peace and blessings, everybody.
Welcome to AI real talk, AI with Eli.
I most definitely would like to, to thank everybody for listening.
And all the feedback that I have been getting, the really good feedback, you know, is, is always something interesting When you start off something, you know, you're never as good as you will be.
And that is a fact with, uh, everything.
One of the things that I know this to be true by is me playing the guitar.
And now I've been playing the guitar for about like 24 years.
And when I started, I'm telling you that there is no way in which I would have been able to think that I would be able to play like I can play.
I most definitely didn't think that I would be getting paid to play.
So, you know, um, everything that I do from here on out.
With the guitar is something that I never imagined.
So there's always greatness.
And this is what I, I think of that is I'm hoping will happen with um, this podcast and.
The case in point, I guess why I'm making this, and this is a pre introduction to the podcast that I have done with I, you know, I kind of described her as the, uh, Horace Mann of education.
Horace Mann is the known or noted founder of modern day education.
You know, sit in the rows, do this amount of time, uh, what I likened her to was, you know, uh, the founder of this kind of education, this two hour.
Artificial intelligence guided education.
That is, that is, um, curriculum, curriculum paced, um, that is curriculum de designed for the curriculum specifically to the student and the pacing and the growth.
and we know with artificial intelligence, what can happen is there is a precision.
There is a, a, a, a surgeon.
Like precision to artificial intelligence on many things.
We know this to be true by the algorithms that are in our for You page on TikTok, the algorithms for all of our social media, and, you know, this is, this is one of the things that, you know, if.
The social media, uh, or the algorithm on Amazon can get you to something where you didn't even know that you needed, that you needed, but all of a sudden you are like, Ooh, this is really good.
And then you purchase it.
Just imagine what it can do, how, how precise it can get with education.
And so what I, what I did was, you know, I was able to interview, uh, the lady by the name of McKenzie Price.
She is the founder of Alpha Schools and, uh, she's been on There we go.
She's been, she's been on M Me, NBC.
She's been on, uh, a lot of, a lot of things.
You know, the first time I ever came across Mackenzie Price.
Was, you know, on YouTube and watching, uh, her doing an interview on one of the major news channels.
But for some reason, I didn't want to research her too well because I didn't want to know too much about her.
I wanted to feel the energy, but because of her status you know, there is a level of intimidation that I started to feel and I most definitely didn't want to feel that.
So I, you know, I had to pull back, I had to get into myself.
I had to recalibrate.
, when y'all listen to this interview.
That I had with this, uh, McKenzie price.
There comes a moment in which I realized that, oh, our ideas about education do not align.
And this is just really curious for me and for y for those of y'all who, uh, who are not really into education, you gotta think of education like this.
Education is a life force for our society.
Everybody goes through some form of education or indoctrination or inculcation.
This is, this is, this is a mandatory thing in our society, in our American society, is that you go through this, this level of indoctrination is a level of education, and there are different perceptions on how this education needs to be delivered through curriculum or instruction as well.
Peace of love, y'all.
I hope y'all enjoy, or even, even if you, even if it's not something that you enjoy, I hope that you analyze it and, um, think about, you know, times in which you have gone out of yourself as well to, to try to fit into or to mold yourself to something, um, because of perception, whether, Valid or not.
Alright.
Peace one.
Love y'all.
I'm getting ready to go ahead, start.
I'm just going to welcome everybody who is listening to the podcast, artificial Intelligence, real Talk.
What I like to call AI with Eli.
That's catchy.
Just to let you know, that's called catchy.
You were
McKenzie Price: born for this role, Eli.
I love it.
AI and Eli.
I know.
I'll forever think of you when I talk about ai.
Eli Davis: Oh, that's, that's gonna be big.
That's a real big McKinzie.
Okay, so we have a really special guest here.
And the first time I was introduced to, uh, McKinsey Price, I was watching the news and all of a sudden this person came on there and it says, Hey, news flash, we have AI and education.
And, you know, she does it in two hours and she offers this ability to have the students to learn.
And to, use different kinds of skills after they do the AI training.
And, I just thought it was super amazing.
Let me go ahead and give you an official, introduction.
So, McKenzie Price is a Stanford grad and she's a mom of two co-founder of the two Hour Learning, a revolutionary learning platform that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence, uh, which gives kids what I, I really like is, the one-on-one personalized learning.
Um, Her students excel academically.
Spend most of their days learning life skills that set them up for future success.
She's founded the first Alpha School, 10, 10 years ago in Austin, Texas, and now has eight schools and others opening.
Y'all go ahead and give it up for McKenzie Price.
So when I, think of you and I saw you, what I, thought immediately was this lady is transforming education.
Seriously,
McKenzie Price: I'm trying for it.
I'm trying.
I really am.
I think, education needs to be fixed.
It's a broken system.
It doesn't work.
It's not getting good results for our kids.
It's failing them.
It's not preparing them for their future, and it's hurting kids really across the board.
It's, it's hurting our kids who are, struggling the most.
It's hurting kids who, uh, would otherwise be advancing very quickly and are sitting in classrooms bored.
And it was time for change.
I sat with my own two girls and I knew we had to do something.
Something different.
So that's what I'm working on every day, and I, I, I really don't think there's a greater cause, uh, than unlocking human potential.
And I think education is the key to doing that.
Eli Davis: When I, when I think of you, in all honesty, I, I think of somebody who is revolutionary, who has the ability to, be foundational in a significant shift towards education, uh, what you're doing with the two hour learning.
And, offering the ability for this human connection is, is very powerful.
How did you establish that, that two hour process and, establishing the life skills
McKenzie Price: I. I mean, if you think about it, in the traditional system, it's very hard, you know, really, frankly, impossible for a teacher, despite their most heroic efforts, despite how well-trained or how passionate or devoted they are to be able to meet every single student where they are.
Um, And learning science is known for 40 years.
There's been papers out of Oxford and Harvard and Stanford that have said that students have the ability to learn 2, 5, 10 times faster.
When they're given one-to-one mastery-based tutoring, uh, and every one of those learning science papers starts or ends with, unfortunately this is not possible in a teacher in front of the classroom model.
And so back in 2014, uh, when I started the first school, we knew that if we provided kids with adaptive apps.
That met each child kind of where they're at, uh, that you didn't have to sit in class all day in order to not just do your academics, but crush your academics.
Uh, and you know, We basically have found that, in two hours a day for K through eight and for high school students about three hours a day, uh, we can end up with classes that are top 1% in the country.
It is possible to fill your head.
With all of that academic knowledge that actually is important to learn because it's what helps make a great critical thinker.
You've gotta have knowledge in your brain upon which to draw from in order to, you know, to be a great critical thinker and kind of take the next level of creativity and communication skills and collaboration skills and critical thinking.
Uh, and that can be done in a couple hours.
And then one thing I know for sure, and I'm a mom too.
Parents don't want their kids to come home after two hours, right?
School is a bundle.
What are we doing with the rest of that day?
And I'll tell you what, Eli, I was just out this morning on the streets of Austin, Texas, doing man on the street kind of interviews with people.
And I probably talked to 30 different people.
And every single one of those people said, gosh, you know what?
I wish I had learned in school.
I wish I had learned things like how to deal with credit cards and how to create a budget and how to pay taxes.
You know, that falls under the category of.
Financial literacy, but there's so many other life skills that we want our kids to be well prepared to do, and, and for us, that's everything from entrepreneurship and financial literacy, to public speaking, to teamwork, giving and receiving feedback, learning how to deal with failure, grit.
Those are the skills that I bet you, if you and I were to compare war notes, you know, over our time on earth.
We would probably say, gosh, it's those life skills that got us through something, or it was those life skills that we learned that have helped us to be successful.
And, um, so what we've done is we've created this school day where our kids can get their academics done by getting this personalized learning experience.
Um, And it helps kids that come to us struggling and helps kids who come to us bored, and kind of engages.
And then what we spend the rest of the afternoon doing is life skills and central key to that whole model.
Is our teachers.
It's just that we've transformed the role of the teacher from having to create lesson plans and deliver lectures and grade homework to instead focus on motivational and emotional connection with the kids to get them fired up and excited about the things they're working on.
And when you take a motivated learner.
You give them the right level and pace of information and you give them life skills and you do it in such a fun way where they love coming to school, that's where the magic happens.
Eli Davis: So I'm a special education teacher and you know, I. I try to tell, I try to explain people like what does it mean to get a PhD and how transformative it is, you know?
Uh, and One of the courses that I took was about motivated learners, and I've been a special education teacher for a long time.
And, what I'm seeing with using, artificial intelligence, uh, with some of my special education students is that.
uh, using artificial intelligence and having a motivated learner with a disability is a game changer.
because it, it, it sets apart something, you know, I can't really articulate what it is.
I can, but I'm not.
McKenzie Price: Well, you know, think about this, one of the things I think is really crazy about the traditional school world is, historically and typically the kids who do well in traditional school, there's kind of two attributes that they have.
One is they're pretty smart, and two, they've got a high level of conscientiousness which shows that they're able to basically, dot the i's and cross a t's turn in the homework study for the test, arrive to class on time.
Focus on paying attention.
Those are the things that, that help a kid succeed in the traditional school world.
And so oftentimes if a kid doesn't do well, it's like, well, it's 'cause they're not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
They're lazy or they're just disengaged.
And I kind of take the opposite view.
And in our system, in our model of schools, if a kid isn't doing well, then it's our fault.
It's our systems issue because it means that we're not connecting with that kid in a way that motivates.
Them.
And I think that is why we can take a kid who comes to us in the 10th percentile and has been disengaged, uh, and we can help get that kid up to 50th percentile within a year and 90th percentile within two years, right?
We can take a kid who's, who's not connected, not engaged, we can take care of that IQ issue by giving them just the right level and the right pace of stuff.
And that's why we see a lot of success with our diverse learners, kids who have learning differences, right?
Give them material at their pace.
Uh, kids who come in behind, give them material that maybe they should have learned three years ago, but they didn't, for whatever the reason is, you know, and help those kids connect with that and then allow artificial intelligence to, provide that.
Specificity of education to the student.
And then allow humans to do what only humans can do the best, which is that emotional connection and figuring out that fire and helping kids find that intersection of their passions and their talents and getting 'em to connected to the Y.
And I think when we do all of that, uh, you know, we're really seeing that artificial intelligence allows us to raise human intelligence.
Eli Davis: Okay.
I wanna say that's what's up.
that's, that's amazing.
I come from, the inner city of Milwaukee.
I come from the hood, right?
Mm-hmm.
Um, My educational experience was, latent with, struggles from my mom, uh, you know, um, not being engaged in school.
I got held back in the fourth grade.
I had.
uh, didn't pass, uh, regular classes, multiple grade levels, and had to go to summer school to pass.
but that, that, that stems from a socioeconomic standpoint.
Um, uh, partially also, you know, some, some, some just internal struggles from my mom who now is the most beautiful person in the world.
She is amazing.
But, one of the things I know that we would've struggled with would, would've been this, uh, digital divide, so we would not have had access to the, the, to the internet.
We would not have had access to these, uh, different kinds of technology, the power, artificial intelligence.
Is there something that you're working on or that you, you're using that you are, under the cover secretly mapping out this genius plan to help everybody?
I.
McKenzie Price: Uh, We absolutely are.
And I will say, one thing we do need, you know, it's so funny actually.
I talk to, um, I talk to people you know all the time who have what I believe are misconceptions about what's required to have a great education.
And a lot of times you'll hear this from teachers, you'll hear.
From people that oh, the building, we gotta have better buildings.
We have to be, you know, have better resources for a lot of things.
And actually, I mean, there's so much information that shows that funding has not been in any way really tied to, uh, academic results and performance.
In fact, as funding has gone up, our results have gotten worse.
Uh, One of the things I always say is it's.
Not about the building, it's about what happens inside the building.
That's where we see magic.
But I will say, uh, you know, we could do school in a parking lot as long as we had internet connectivity and as long as kids could have a device.
And uh, we've actually seen this, we have about a thousand Ukrainian refugee students that have been doing our learning program the last two and a half years.
Uh, And early on in that program, those kids.
Didn't have a place to go to school.
They literally, all they got was, you know, an iPad and, you know, having internet connectivity.
Um, And we saw results where they were learning almost three times faster than us students were.
Uh, you know, Again, when given the right motivation measure, which I will tell you the right motivation measure in that case was we paid them, you know, $2 and 50 cents a day was enough to get these kids cranking on math.
Right and learning English.
Uh, We're actually rolling out a program to refugees in Malawi, Africa as well, um, where we're able to kind of connect that.
So, I absolutely recognize that there are so many, uh, students that, you know, are struggling and come from, from tough places, and, uh, I think it becomes even more critical in that situation.
To allow teachers to free their time up to try to focus on, you know, what's going on with that student at home.
Where is, you know, where are their challenges, uh, that they're, that they're doing.
And help them see a bigger vision about, you know, whatever hardships that are going on in, in their daily life.
What, what's that thing they wanna do?
And, no comparing stories, but I grew up with a single mom.
A daddy went to prison.
I was in five different schools by the time I was in fifth grade.
I think about some of those connections that can happen there where it helps a kid kind of see like, Hey, what is that thing you love to do and how can we help you see a vision for where you get your life, you know, going.
And again, that's where those adults that are gonna work in our classrooms with us are gonna be.
So key and critical and if we can use technology to enable them to free up that time to focus on that stuff, I think it's important.
And one thing I think that's happening is, you know, if you put me in charge of K through 12 public education, you know, tomorrow, I actually believe that we have a lot of the keys, to success right there, which is we can find those teachers and those coaches, those currently, you know, extracurricular coaches who are teaching basketball and football and, and theater or whatever right now and move those.
Move them into that role of being able to focus on motivation and get that technology out there.
The other thing is, uh, you know, right now we do spend quite a bit of money on our ai, uh, system, which is what kind of oversees this adaptive learning platform that we've got for our students.
Uh, But the price of that's gonna come down and I believe in five years, every student in the world is going to have the ability to, you know, for a thousand bucks a year, basically hold an iPad that provides them with.
Information and knowledge that goes at their pace.
Uh, And I think you're right, internet connectivity is a big one that one of the reasons we're working Malawi is because starlink just was delivered there.
And so now they do have internet connection and once they have that, we can literally provide that one-to-one tutoring.
Experience for students, you know, that goes at their pace.
And I think the other thing is, you know, one of the things I hear about, we've been working on getting into the public sector through charter schools, and of course once you start going into public world, the fangs come out, you know, of people who say, well, this might work for your private schools.
And, and again, mistakenly they'll say, oh, you got a bunch of rich white kids who are in your private schools, which is not accurate, uh, in our situation.
we have not admitted students based on their previous performance or anything like that.
Uh, We're a little different than a lot of private schools when it comes to it.
But I think when we fundamentally look at the amount of money that has been thrown down, the drain of education that hasn't worked, it's time to do something different.
And, uh, we're seeing great results with kids from.
you know, Different socioeconomic classes with, uh, kids of all, uh, racial backgrounds, kids with English as a second language, kids who have dyslexia and dysgraphia, and a DD and A DHD, and who are on the spectrum.
You know, learning differences galore.
And the whole thing that unites this is that when you think of a child as this individual and you meet them where they're at.
That's the key thing.
There should be personalized learning for every single student, not a one size fits all, uh, answer that has been shown not to work.
Eli Davis: Yeah.
I, I 100% agree, uh, with the personalized learning.
Part of my, uh, research that I do, you know, to, to get to, to this PhD, this, mythical thing that I thought I thought about when I was in, uh, uh, 11th grade.
It's called myself, Dr. Davis, right?
I do the research, what is called epigenetics and mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So I do the research on epigenetics and one, one did I do, one of the things I do is I follow the lineage, you know, uh, and then, um, and then I, I'm, I'm working in schools in Birmingham, uh, Alabama.
And, um, I'm, I'm thinking about the lineage and the historical, uh, the historical components of, the trauma.
That has been, been generational and generational.
when we think about, some of the things that's needed, Can the two hour, process the AI learning process how could we use the, time to build on social emotional, uh, skills?
Like, like what is, what is, uh, the things that you do, uh, in your schools?
Yeah.
McKenzie Price: Well, um, so I'll give you a couple examples of some of just the, the fun ways that you can teach kid life skill, teach kids life skills, and, make it exciting for them.
Um, And one of the examples I, I just love to give, we ran a workshop this last year called How to Be a Spy.
And it was this really fun workshop where kids are, are learning all these.
Spy techniques, but what we were really teaching was how to read body language, how to engage in conversation with someone that you don't know, uh, you know how to make eye contact, things like that.
And, uh, we had a student, uh, walk up to me and, this student is, uh, autistic.
And you know, the moment you meet him, you realize that he is on the spectrum.
And I walked into school one day and the class, the workshop.
Uh, How to be a spy.
I've been going on for a couple weeks at this point, and this little boy walks right up to me and he puts his hand out to shake my hand.
He says, hello, miss Mackenzie, how are you today?
And I said, well, I'm fantastic.
How are you doing?
And then he said, do you have a busy day?
And I said, I said, well, yeah, I've got a meeting and I'm gonna be doing this and this.
What about you?
And he answered the questions.
And then there was a. A little lull in the conversation and he looked out the door and he said, it seems like the weather is gonna stay pretty nice today, don't you think?
And I said, yeah, I think it'll be good.
And then he said to me, have you noticed I've been maintaining eye contact?
And I said, I have absolutely noticed that.
And a couple days later, I saw his mom at school and his mom came to me with tears in her eyes.
And she said, these are the skills that I want my son to be learning.
Right?
I want him to learn how to engage in a conversation with someone that he doesn't know very well.
I want him to be noticing things like his, his aversion to eye contact and how to focus on that, right?
I want him to be doing those things, and it's just one example of so many of the different.
Life skills that can be taught.
I'll give you another one that's really fun that we're using AI to do.
Uh, so we, uh, take our kids, uh, out to play a sport, uh, any sport.
We've had 'em do basketball, volleyball, soccer, and we mic them up and we'll take, we'll assign kids to be the captain of their team, right?
Each of them.
And then we use AI to analyze.
Their gameplay talk.
Like what is it that they've said?
How have they communicated with their teammates, uh, with their teammates, um, how have they communicated leadership?
What are they doing?
And you know, it's one of those things when kids get that feedback and awareness of like, oh yeah, here's what I was doing to work on my leadership and I.
Team work abilities.
We've done the same thing in those escape rooms.
I don't know if you've ever been to one of those really fun escape rooms where you've gotta work as a team to try to try to get out within an hour.
Um, But you know, when we use these, these experiences, you know, for, uh, using AI even to.
Provide feedback to kids on how they can communicate.
Uh, Public speaking is another great life skill that if you can be a great communicator and public speaker, there's so many different doors that open up for you, you know, as you're going through life.
And, uh, we do this even with our kindergarten and first grade students.
Uh, We'll use AI apps.
So that they can start creating their speeches and then getting feedback on their intonation, the number of words per minute they're pacing, how many filler words they're using, uh, how can they make their stories more engaging?
And, you know, practicing your speech in front of an AI app is a lot less intimidating than practicing a speech in front of 50 people.
Right.
But then we stair-step these activities.
So, you know, for example, this year our students, uh, started out by using these AIOps to give feedback.
Then they went to the Humane Society and they practiced their speeches in front of cats.
Uh, 'cause cats are a pretty UNT intimidating audience.
Too.
Then they went to an old folks' home and they were able to practice there.
Then they went to a local bookstore and they gave public readings.
Um, And what this results in is building up confidence and competence, um, such that we have our youngest children.
You know, giving speeches in front of audiences of a hundred people, right?
And there's so many ways that we can use AI tools to help kids really develop life skills and develop, you know, their success.
Uh, Instead of teaching them that AI is just something they could use to cheat, let's show them how these AI tools can help give them superpowers.
Eli Davis: Just, just 1, 1, 1 small little quick, question.
So, so what I've, I've, I've noticed and just doing my, my research on you you talked to everybody.
What, what is that about?
Why do you, why do you do that?
McKenzie Price: Well, here's what I kind of feel like, I wanna do.
I want to.
Help spread the word and raise awareness that there is a better way for us to be educating our kids.
We do not have to just accept the status quo.
I think when we think about school and education, uh, because all of us had our own personal experience growing up through a system, we kind of think, well, hey, this is just the way it is.
You know, you gotta kind of.
You gotta go through the motion, you gotta get through school.
I don't know about you, Eli, but I was one of those kids who hated school.
I never liked school.
I was so excited.
When I finally finished, I remember literally tapping the top of my head and saying, I'm done.
The, this is closed.
We're not going back to school.
School for anything else.
Of course, the irony that now I am in a school most days of the week is, is not lost on me.
Um, But I want people to know that there's a better way and that they shouldn't just accept that, hey, some kids aren't gonna do great in school.
Uh, Some kids are gonna hate it, you know, 13 years of our lives is too long to spend five days a week, all day long.
Being a disengaged board or just going through the motions, which unfortunately in our traditional system is I think what a vast majority of students are doing.
Um, So I kind of wanna be that person out there beating the drum to say, Hey, you know, there's something better coming out.
And, you know, I've started with what I can do in terms of being able to expand.
The students we serve and trying to get into the public world.
Actually, I was very excited.
I was just in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, uh, the author of the piece was saying, Hey guys, it's time to look at using AI to provide this better education experience.
And so I think as we can get that to be done, and it's part of what I spend a lot of time on my future of education doing is helping parents and educators, you know, not be scared of what the future holds.
Right.
And especially again, with teachers, I want teachers to know.
I actually think it's a really exciting time to be a teacher because I think their jobs are going to finally be able to change so that they can have the impact that they need to have and that they wanna have.
But again, we have given, you know, in the model of education we've done of this, you know, one teacher with 15, 20, 25, maybe even 30.
Students, uh, you know, it's like giving them a bucket with a hole in it, holes in it, and telling 'em to empty the ocean.
It's been an impossible task and I think it's time for us to like, make teaching a noble profession again, one where our teachers can have great impact on our students.
And, um, I believe that, you know, AI is an answer.
AI doesn't care if a student is white, black, or brown.
It doesn't care if a student is rich or poor.
It doesn't care if a student is in the 10th percentile or the 98th percentile.
It's infinitely patient.
So AI allows us to raise the floor and blow the ceiling off of what's possible and doing it for every single kid.
So I think ultimately it's gonna be accessible and it's gonna be scalable, and it's gonna change, uh, the role of teachers for the better, and it's gonna meet our students where they need to be.
Which is, is gonna be helpful.
So I, you know, I guess I was born always a pretty social gal and I like to talk and if I can talk about education and talk about how we can change kids' lives, like count me in, I'm up for it all the time.
Eli Davis: Okay.
That's really cool.
Okay.
All right.
So, uh, thank you very much, um, Mackenzie Price for your time.
I really appreciate it and well, thank you.
Yeah.
And, uh, thank everybody that's, uh, out here listening and, um, you know.
think about some of the things that's, that, that's going on.
Uh, Think about some of the, uh, the concepts that, um, McKenzie is offering You know, go out, go out there, go out there and create.
This is, this is a very, uh, amazing, conversation and I appreciate it.
And uh, we get ready to close out.
Thank you for tuning in to.
AI with Eli artificial intelligence, real talk.