Julian's classroom has windows on three sides and room for his desk as well as a separate lectern. Inside, 27 children sit in front of 27 laptops, all logged on to the Khan Academy. Used in the classroom, the Khan Academy flips the traditional curriculum; students listen to the lectures at home, on their own time, and do the homework in class, which allows the teacher time to address student issues individually. As the class progresses, Julian wanders through the desks with an iPad running Khan's dashboard, so he can see who's ahead and who's behind. He doesn't really need it: He already knows exactly how each student is progressing. And he isn't doing as much individual teaching as one might expect. Often, the lagging students are tutored by the students who are ahead. "The kids know whom to call on," says Julian. "It happened on its own. They just began to get out of their seats and work with each other. They've identified their trustworthy peer tutors. They know they can call on Sriram and Akhil and Albert, and that they know what they're talking about. Mainly, I've had to spend time teaching them how to teach."
Erin Green, principal of Covington, loves the Khan Academy and plans to expand it to more classrooms. "Many of the students are working at a level of mathematics that I have never seen in an elementary school before, maybe not even in a junior high school before," she says. "They're engaged and they're excited, and that's the most exciting part. It meets you at your level."
The Khan Academy has also been introduced in two seventh-grade classrooms for struggling learners in the Los Altos district, and the district is considering using it in all schools next year. "Their improvement has been dramatic," says Khan of the slow group, who notes that his studies are small, not peer-reviewed, and just intended for him to get a sense of whether Khan Academy methods are working or not. "We're seeing 70 percent on average improvement on the pre-algebra topics in those classrooms. It definitely tells us it's not derailing anything. All the indicators say that something profound looks like it's happening."
Powerful stuff!
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