Sal Khan and Amy McGrath on Khan World School @ ASU Prep

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Tom Vander Ark is joined by Sal Khan founder of Khan Academy and Amy McGrath, Chief Operating Officer at ASU Preparatory Academy. They recently launched the Khan World School @ ASU Prep – an innovative new online high school opening in August.

Links

• Khan World School
• Amy McGrath on Learning Under Quarantine
• Khan World School Announcement
• Facebook live with Sal and Amy
• Khan Academy District Partnership
• ASU Preparatory Academy – Pilgrim Rest Elementary
• Schoolhouse.World

Unbundling and rebundling is a frequent discussion thread in the education sector as we imagine the next generation of learning experiences to meet the needs of every student. While part of the discussion focused on unbundling learning parts, the rebundled efforts are fairly limited. The announcement of Khan World School @ ASU Prep this spring rebundles two innovative education players into a new virtual model launching in Fall 2022.

Khan Academy, founded by Sal Khan in 2008, “provides a free, world-class education to anyone anywhere.” The program structured the backbone of many rebundled experiences at the classroom level. Skill reinforcement, content instruction, flipped classrooms and trackable progress proved to be instrumental for many teachers looking to build their own re-bundled learning experiences.

In 2020, Khan launched the free tutoring platform, schoolhouse.world, adding another unbundled learning experience of tutoring to supplement the available Khan Academy content.

In 2008, on a parallel path, ASU Prep Digital launched as an online public charter high school in Arizona as part of the ASU Prep network of schools. In 2020, ASU Prep Digital expanded to K-8 students and now reaches 42,000 students around the world. With a mission to design new models for educational success and raise academic achievement for all learners, ASU Prep is an eager partner for novel ways to rebundle the learner experience.

Khan World School @ ASU Prep is an honors program of ASU Prep Digital. Students “work together solving real-world problems in a unique online school model that rewards curiosity, empowers agency and provides them with the skills and confidence needed to excel in college and careers.” 

Four learning design elements serve as the foundation for the program. Real-time daily seminars provide interactive Socratic discussion to help connect and engage with peers around challenging questions. Seminars occur on a weekly basis. Small group tutorials offer individual and group tutoring via Learning Guides to support student growth in the knowledge, skills and dispositions articulated by the curriculum. Multiple tutors provide varied perspectives and expertise. Self-paced, personalized learning combines the ASU Prep Digital course content and the Khan Academy curriculum to allow students to follow customized paths towards both graduation requirements and college credit. Finally, peer tutoring through schoolhouse.world, provides Khan World School student’s with high-demand group tutoring, office-hours, and dedicated virtual study spaces.

In addition, like all ASU Prep students, individualized learning plans will guide a personalized approach for each academic journey. Throughout the pandemic, educators realized that community support and interaction is a critical element to academic success. Khan World School divides students into cohorts (the group that they entered the program with), seminars (approximately 40 students who meet for daily seminars), and squads (small groups of 4-5 students supported by a Learning Guide. 

As more learning experiences rebundle in novel ways like Khan World School @ ASU Prep, more high quality learning path options emerge to meet the needs of all students.