A private school that replaces most of the traditional school day with AI software and life-skills workshops has opened its first Houston-area campus in The Woodlands.

Alpha School, an Austin-based network founded in 2014, welcomed its first students in kindergarten through eighth grade at 2000 Woodlands Parkway for the 2026-2027 school year, the school announced in a press release. The roughly 8,000-square-foot campus sits adjacent to The Woodlands Waterway and caps enrollment at 65 students. More than 50 had already enrolled as of Sept. 20, Community Impact Newspaper reported.

Annual tuition is $40,000, the school said in its press release announcing the campus.

The model works like this: students spend two hours each morning on core academics, including math, reading, science and history, using adaptive AI software that adjusts to each child's level. Students advance only after demonstrating mastery of a topic. The rest of the day goes to workshops built around five skill areas: teamwork and leadership, storytelling and public speaking, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, relationship building, and grit.

Workshop titles at The Woodlands campus include Alpha Mad Scientists, Alpha Animation, Lyrical Genius, Consultants, How to Buy Stuff and Now You See Me.

Teachers at Alpha are called "guides." Rather than writing lesson plans or grading papers, guides focus on motivational coaching and getting to know each student individually, co-founder MacKenzie Price told Community Impact.

"We use an artificial intelligence learning platform to provide one-on-one, mastery-based tutoring that meets every single child [at] the exact level and pace that's right for them," Price said in the Sept. 20 interview.

The school claims its students score in the top 1% to 2% on the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment, a nationally normed test. That data is self-reported by Alpha School. The New York Post reported Jan. 30 that the school has not shared student scores on state standardized tests.

Alpha is growing fast nationally. The network plans to expand from roughly a dozen campuses to about 50 during the 2026 school year, opening in 27 markets, Axios reported in August. Newsweek reported the network is operating or launching in 16 states. In Texas, Alpha also has campuses in Austin, Fort Worth and Southlake, with a Dallas location also planned.

Price told Community Impact the school already plans to move into a larger Woodlands space by the end of the 2026-2027 school year or next fall. A separate Alpha campus is scheduled to open in January somewhere in the Houston area.