MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Khan Academy is supporting more than 100 public school districts across the country as the nonprofit educational organization responds to the unprecedented demands of the pandemic. Khan Academy will serve nearly half a million students in partner districts this school year through two unique offerings: Khan Academy Districts and MAP Accelerator, in partnership with NWEA.
“No one could have imagined the scenario we find ourselves in with COVID-19,” said Catherine Wang, Khan Academy’s vice president of marketing and strategic partnerships. “In this challenging time, we’re glad to be working with district partners in large cities and small towns across 38 states.”
Khan Academy Districts, one of two offerings for school districts introduced last year, provides tools, professional development and data insights to help teachers, district administrators and principals monitor student use of Khan Academy districtwide. Many school districts that serve students who are historically under-resourced have enrolled in Khan Academy Districts, including Detroit Public Schools Community District, Trenton Public Schools, Omaha Public Schools and the Roswell Independent School District.
Khan Academy’s second offering is MAP Accelerator, a personalized learning tool developed in partnership with NWEA. MAP Accelerator reduces the manual work of differentiating math instruction for teachers. The offering helps teachers generate a personalized learning plan for each student based on their MAP Growth results, and also provides data insights to district administrators and school leaders. MAP Accelerator districts include Glendale Unified School District, Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Madera Unified School District and Clark County Public Schools.
“The information we are gathering as we enter the second year of partnership with Khan Academy and NWEA has been a valuable tool for our teachers and administrators especially during distance education,” said Dr. Jesus Jara, superintendent of the Clark County School District, the fifth-largest school district in the country. “MAP Accelerator helps us support personalized learning and differentiated instruction for all our students.”
MAP Accelerator and Khan Academy Districts launched in fall 2019 with nine school district partners.
“Pajaro Valley Unified School District and Khan Academy have a similar mission — we want students to be successful in their educational journey to ensure they are ready for college, career and life. MAP Accelerator is a powerful tool that improves teachers’ ability to personalize student learning in mathematics,” said Michelle Rodriguez, superintendent of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Watsonville, California. “In addition to empowering teachers, the system empowers students to improve their academic performance as they work at their own level and pace, track their own progress, and use skill-building tools to accelerate their own learning. PVUSD’s use of MAP Accelerator is fully aligned with our commitment to focus on the whole child and our vision to support each student to excel through personalized instruction.”
Prior to the launch of the two offerings, Long Beach Unified reported students who used Khan Academy gained twice the district average on the state math assessment. Findings held true regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, family income or English language learner status.
“The efficacy study in Long Beach Unified helped provide an impetus to launch our district offerings,” said Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy. “Since then, the pandemic and protests over systemic racism have put into sharp focus the challenges facing millions of students across the country. Many of our district partners serve students who are historically under-resourced and we’re committed to supporting their efforts.”
Across the schools and districts using the two offerings:
- 67% of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch (the national average is 49%)
- 19% of students are Black (the national average is 15%)
- 45% of students are Latino/Hispanic (the national average is 27%)
For more information about school district partnerships, please visit the informational pages for MAP Accelerator and Khan Academy Districts.
About Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Khan Academy’s platform includes more than 70,000 practice problems as well as videos and articles that cover a range of K-12 subjects. We offer Khan Academy Kids, an award-winning, free app for children ages two to seven. Our learning system is mastery based, which allows students to master key concepts at a pace that’s right for them before moving on to more challenging content. We partner with school districts across the country and around the world that serve students who are historically under-resourced. In the United States, school districts use Khan Academy Districts and MAP Accelerator to help teachers differentiate instruction. Nearly 20 million learners use Khan Academy every month in 190 countries and 46 languages. As a nonprofit, Khan Academy relies on donations from foundations, corporations and individuals around the world, as well as earned revenue. For more information, please see research findings about Khan Academy and our press page.
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SOURCE Khan Academy
