We’re grateful for the partnership of school districts across the country that have turned to us for district-level support in math, science, and SAT practice.
This year, we’re working with districts in large cities and small towns across 45 states. New districts include Brown County Schools in Indiana, YES Prep Public Schools in Houston, and Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut. Returning partners include Madera Unified School District and Omaha Public Schools.
More than 280 districts are working with us for the 2021–2022 school year across our district offerings: Khan Academy Districts and MAP Accelerator, in partnership with NWEA.
That’s up from nine districts when we launched partnerships in fall 2019.
We know learning gaps in math are top of mind for educators everywhere
As we begin the road to recovery, learning loss has widened the gap between students who are ahead and students who are behind. NWEA research shows that a single class can have up to nine grade levels in it.
In today’s learning environment, it’s incredibly time consuming for teachers to tailor lesson plans for each student. That’s why we’re glad to partner with NWEA to offer MAP Accelerator, which uses MAP Growth scores in math to automatically generate a personalized learning plan for each student, while keeping the teacher as the instructional decision maker.
Mastery-based learning can help fill in the gaps
MAP Accelerator and Khan Academy Districts use our mastery-based system to help with unfinished learning, while providing valuable data insights to district administrators and school leaders.
With mastery learning, students have the opportunity to learn more because they are given the chance to reach a high level of proficiency on a skill before moving on to a new skill. Khan Academy allows students to work on grade-level content while also filling in gaps. When students use MAP Accelerator or Khan Academy Districts, they learn at their own pace. They progress through questions and quizzes at just the right level for them. They get feedback as they learn and help when they need it most. Teachers track student progress, identify gaps, and give students one-on-one attention to help them succeed.
Decades of research and nearly 300 studies show mastery learning works. It has always been the philosophical heart of Khan Academy. Our support of mastery learning is rooted in the belief that we should hold high standards for all students and that all children can learn.
We’re providing administrator insights about SAT practice
Recent learning disruptions place a renewed emphasis on making sure students meet graduation requirements. The SAT is an important path to graduation for millions of students in states such as Florida, Texas, Illinois, and Indiana where students take the SAT during the school day.
With Official SAT Practice, Khan Academy has partnered with College Board to offer a personalized program that helps students practice for the SAT with thousands of sample questions, instant feedback, video lessons, and full-length practice tests. Districts that enroll in Khan Academy Districts receive administrator insights for Official SAT Practice, providing a critical view into usage and engagement.
“This spring all juniors in Indiana will take the SAT at school for the first time,” said Emily Tracy, superintendent of Brown County Schools. “We’re excited to equip our teachers with an in-class resource for SAT prep. We look forward to gaining district-level insights and watching our students progress as they practice for test day.”
Students who prepare for the SAT using Official SAT Practice see substantial improvements in their scores. Students who practiced for six or more hours and engaged in at least one best practice scored 39 points higher from PSAT/NMSQT® to their first SAT. Score increases held true regardless of demographic characteristics.
We’re proud to contribute to the work of district leaders across the country to create a more just and equitable learning environment.
All children are born ready to learn. Yet many students from low-income communities and students of color attend under-resourced schools. As a result, they often face barriers their peers do not.
Khan Academy is committed to creating equitable learning environments. To that end, we focus our district work on supporting districts that serve students from low-income communities and students of color. Across the schools and districts we’re working with this school year, data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows:
- 66% of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch (the national average is 52%)
- 18% of students are Black (the national average is 15%)
- 43% of students are Latino/Hispanic (the national average is 28%)
Khan Academy is available in more than 50 languages, including Spanish. Our goal is to help all children to realize their full potential.
Proven results in a classroom setting
We launched district partnerships two years ago following a successful pilot with Long Beach Unified. More than 5,000 middle school students in Long Beach used Khan Academy integrated into instruction during one math class period per week. The district indicated students scored roughly 2 times the district target on the state math exam. Findings held true regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, family income, or English language learner status.
In addition, an earlier statewide pilot of Khan Academy in Idaho with more than 10,000 students showed students who complete 60% or more of their grade-level math on Khan Academy experienced 1.8 times their expected growth on the mathematics portion of the NWEA MAP Growth Assessment.
Product improvements for this school year
We value the feedback teachers have given us about improving our Assignments feature. This year we put into place three updates that teachers requested. First, teachers have the ability to schedule assignments for future dates. They can plan their class Khan work in advance, and students won’t see the assignment until it’s time. Second, teachers can now change the due dates and start dates on multiple assignments at once. This makes it easier to make adjustments to Khan assignments. And finally, when new students join a class, they’ll now be automatically added to any active assignments.
Also, CSV data exporting is now available. Users of Khan Academy Districts can download student data of their choosing for any school or group of schools. See overall student learning time, skills leveled up, and SAT learning time in one download.
Looking ahead
We’re thankful for our partners, NWEA and College Board, and the thousands of school district employees who make this work possible—superintendents, curriculum leads, instructional coaches, and most importantly, the tens of thousands of teachers who use Khan Academy in their classrooms every day. They are real-life superheroes who deserve all the support we can provide. We’re grateful for the opportunity to work with them, and we look forward to all the learning ahead.
Onward!
For more information about school district partnerships, please visit MAP Accelerator and Khan Academy Districts.