An El Paso hybrid private school that is incorporating lessons on artificial intelligence is seeking accreditation, hoping to take advantage of the state’s new education savings account program that allows families to pay for tuition using state funds.
New Horizons Home School Academy, which has several campuses across El Paso, offers in-person and online classes to elementary, middle and high school students.
The school is being considered for accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, a nonprofit association that evaluates and accredits schools in the U.S. and internationally. Accrediting agencies regularly evaluate schools to make sure students are meeting set academic standards and provide a level of oversight to educational organizations that aren’t subject to state regulations. Some colleges, financial aid programs and employers also require applicants to have a diploma from an accredited high school.
New Horizons CEO Myrna Boyer said the school has been looking to earn accreditation for several years in anticipation that it would be able to receive state funding.
“We knew Texas would eventually come through with a form of voucher program,” Boyer said.
If approved, New Horizons could qualify to join the nearly 40 private schools in El Paso that are a part of the state’s voucher-like Texas Education Freedom Accounts program. The program gives families $10,500 per student a year to pay for private school tuition and other expenses, up to $30,000 a year for students with disabilities and $2,000 a year for homeschool students.
Tuition at New Horizons ranges from $3,700 a year for homeschool students to $5,300 for students who attend classes in person, according to its website. It also offers discounted tuition of $2,500 a year for additional siblings.
The for-profit academy began offering lessons on how to use AI as a research tool at the start of the school year.
Boyer said the lessons show students how AI can be used without doing the work for them and how to check for false information.
She said the goal is to “use AI to partner with the human element … and to learn how to use it properly. To understand AI is not always correct,” Boyer said.
As the use of AI grows, schools across the U.S. and El Paso are attempting to keep up with the rapidly evolving technology. Many are using AI in their classes and offering AI literacy lessons that teach students how the technology works, how it can be used and how to use it responsibly.
One chain of private schools with a location in Austin, known as Alpha School, made headlines for using AI as the main instructor to teach core academic subjects in two hours a day.
Now some education experts, including David DeMatthews, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin, are raising concerns that private schools are using AI with limited guidance on how to incorporate it into learning and no oversight on how to protect student data. Unlike private schools, public schools under federal law can not release students’ personal information without parental consent, preventing them from using AI models that store and share data with third parties.
“AI models are being sold to third parties that can then be used to advertise a variety of things. They build these profiles of children that could follow them into adulthood,” DeMatthews said.
“It’s concerning to even hear now that potentially voucher dollars in Texas could go towards products that have not been tested, especially not in the long term, because AI is so new,” he added.
DeMatthews published a framework in March for school leaders on the best way to implement AI into schools.
New Horizons has four campuses across El Paso. Two of the campuses, located on the Eastside and in Horizon, are operated by Boyer. The other two on the Westside are franchises owned by Boyer’s son, Arthur Boyer and Grisel Rodriguez, according to county records. Rodriguez previously worked as a teacher at New Horizons, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The schools have 350 to 400 students, only about 20% of whom attend school in person, Myra Boyer said. The rest work from home.
Boyer, who doesn’t have any formal background in education, founded New Horizons in the 90s after she began homeschooling her own children. She previously worked as a nutritional consultant and owned several martial arts studios across El Paso.
She said the school follows its own curriculum and creates individualized learning plans for each student based on their performance on the Stanford Achievement Test Series, which measures academic knowledge of elementary and secondary school students. These learning plans are meant to allow students to do their schoolwork at their own pace and complete multiple grade levels in one year.
Without providing many details, Boyer said New Horizons uses secular education material, such as Khan Academy and McGraw-Hill, along with its own research to develop its curriculum.
“For instance, it’s not hard to determine what a high school student would need to know about chemistry. You just Google that. So, then you get the concepts, and then from there, you develop a curriculum around that,” Boyer said.
Unlike public schools, private schools in Texas are not required to comply with state accountability or assessment standards and don’t have a state-mandated curriculum. Private schools are also not mandated to make their curriculum available for public view — a requirement for public schools.
Boyer said New Horizons uses a project-based learning model that teaches students by encouraging them to take part in hands-on activities to answer questions or solve problems. This includes experiments, demonstrations and class discussions that Boyer said help students remember a subject.
“I think students learn better if you give them a more well-focused and engaging curriculum, where they’re involved in it, where they’re not treated as though they don’t know the material,” Boyer said.
One parent, Erikka Light, said she initially struggled to find a school that suited her son Silas, who has autism. Light said she was attracted to New Horizon’s individualized learning plans that are adapted to each student’s needs.
“I took a chance, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made,” Light told El Paso Matters as she prepared to swipe a credit card at the school’s front desk. “Silas, his first year, completed all of kindergarten and almost all of first grade. And then, his second year, he finished all of first grade and went halfway through second grade. He has been, on average, about a year ahead.”
Research and lessons on AI
New Horizons’ website says it embraces student access to AI and recognizes that it should be used for learning while maintaining a human touch.
Boyer said students take part in AI projects once a month for four hours.
High school senior Sylvia Sanchez used artificial intelligence to draft a thesis statement as part of an assignment designed to teach students how to use the technology as a research tool.
“AI is not something that I’m really interested in, but I like that we were able to choose our own topic,” Sanchez told El Paso Matters about the assignment, which included writing an essay.
One assignment focuses on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, a fake species with its own “conservation website” that’s part of an online hoax, often used to test students to see if they can identify false information.
“Now they have to take that website and then do their own research, apply some of the information that AI has provided for them, and then fact-check it against the number of questions that we have for them,” Boyer said.
While most schools in El Paso that utilize AI only allow students to use specialized software designed for education that can be monitored by teachers, Boyer said New Horizons allows students to use whichever AI model they prefer.
She said the school has not explored AI programs with moderation features or safeguards, and relies on teachers or parents to monitor technology use.
“We don’t have a use for that kind of thing, because we have educators, and we have very small classrooms,” she said.
DeMatthews said allowing students to choose what AI program to use for class could open them to data privacy risks and lead to uneven educational outcomes.
“People like the idea of students having choice and having personalization, that can sound empowering. But education for young people isn’t just about letting them pursue their interests; it’s about building a shared knowledge within our population. It’s about developing very specific skills. It’s about having safeguards so that children aren’t navigating complex tools like AI and content on their own,” DeMatthews said.
Though public schools don’t have any direction from the state on how to adopt AI, DeMatthews said they have access to more resources that can offer guidance compared to private schools.
“These tend to be smaller organizations that have less room in their budgets. So, it’s even less likely that they’re going to be able to make really significant investments in developing policies, developing training and ultimately have the capacity to use these tools appropriately,” DeMatthews said about private schools.
Some accrediting organizations, including the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, offer an endorsement program that serves as proof that a school has met specific standards or completed specialized training on AI.
The association’s endorsement program, Responsible Artificial Intelligence Literacy — also known as RAIL — helps schools develop policies and procedures on AI use, get insurance coverage for AI liabilities and offers training materials for school employees, among others. Over 60 schools around the world have received a RAIL endorsement, according to the association’s website.
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