Oakland Unity, a charter school located on the east side of Oakland, has been piloting Khan Academy this year by using a rotational learning lab model. On a recent test on systems of equations, the class average was double what it was last year, and a deeper dive into the data shows even more promise.
While they’ve seen impressive academic gains, the math teachers have started seeing something potentially more profound: students have been gaining confidence, putting more effort into their work, and taking responsibility over their own learning. According to Peter McIntosh, the Algebra teacher at Oakland Unity:
When we stopped worrying about whether Khan Academy videos were better than our own lectures or whether the exercises had the appropriate mix of concept vs. drill, we recognized that we had found a powerful tool that reached students and changed their habits in ways we had never even considered possible.
Read more about Oakland Unity’s academic gains and changes in students’ habits in this blog post. And in Oakland Unity’s second blog post, you can see how this change has impacted individual students.