Fueled by a $2.2 million grant, Khan Academy will develop online content and tools over the next two years to help teachers and students meet the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.
The popular producer of free online content already has a large volume of practice materials and videos that are “mapped” to the common-core math standards, a press release says, but with the grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, it will build new diagnostic tools to help better identify gaps in student learning. In addition, the grant will enable Khan Academy—best known for its math instructional videos—to more “deeply cover” the standards.
Khan Academy has drawn some criticism over the pedagogy in its math instructional videos. An Education Week Storify—“Anatomy of a Khan-troversy”—produced last year examines the emergence of the nonprofit organization and the growing debate over its approach. The Storify also includes an interview with founder Salman Khan, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School. Khan’s organization grew out of his efforts to help his young relatives with their homework.
Khan Academy’s instructional materials cover a variety of subjects, from math to biology and even art history. Last summer, it announced plans, in fact, to turn some attention to computer science.