Location: Central Austin
1201 Spyglass Drive
Austin, TX 78746
Students served: Grades K–8
Current enrollment: 108; rolling admissions for 2024–2025 school year, with small class sizes for personalized attention; student:guide ratio of 5:1
Model/philosophy: Alpha School is a mastery-based, self-paced K–8 private school that leverages AI-powered learning to accelerate academic achievement. Core subjects are completed in just two hours per day, followed by guide-led immersive life skills workshops in the afternoons. The school emphasizes essential real-world skills such as leadership, financial literacy, and public speaking, believing that fostering self-driven learning and problem-solving is as crucial as academic success. Alpha makes three key commitments: students will love school, learn twice as fast, and learn vital life skills. Its mission is to empower every student to unlock their full potential and thrive both academically and personally.
Special features: Alpha's dynamic campus combines entrepreneurship labs and innovation spaces, in addition to school trips. Students take, on average, two international trips yearly, plus frequent regional expeditions, putting their skills to work in real-world settings. With a 5:1 student-guide ratio and Harvard-educated mentors, the Alpha environment transforms students into global leaders.
Schedule: 8:15am–4pm, Monday–Friday; August 14, 2024–June 6, 2025
Tuition: $40,000 annually, with financial assistance and scholarship opportunities. All supplies, travel fees, and workshops are included.
Contact: Alpha Austin Admissions Team | 512-358-1672 | admissions@alpha.school
Each listing in this alphabetical directory gives you a snapshot of a small, independent, alternative school in the Austin area.
This frequently updated list spans several pages, with navigation buttons at the bottom. Clicking on the name of a school will take you to its own website. To easily find schools by geographical area, see our Alt Ed Maps page. If you know of a school that’s missing from this directory, please drop a note here, and see Alt Ed Austin’s criteria for “alternative” and “school.” You may also be interested in our directories of other recommended schools (which are mostly larger or more specialized or religiously oriented), as well as special programs for children and adults.
Full disclosure: Alt Ed Austin founder Teri Sperry has ties with several of the schools listed on this site. Her child, now an adult, attended two of them years ago. She has friends who direct, teach at, or are otherwise involved in others. Some programs choose to advertise from time to time on Alt Ed Austin as Sponsoring Partners. She firmly believes that all of the schools featured on this site (including the ones to which she has no personal connection and those from which she receives no advertising fees) are good choices for some kids, each for different reasons.
