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Robert: From NPR News this is All Things Considered.
I'm Robert Siegel.
Michele: And I'm Michele Norris
A lot of struggling math students have found comfort
in the sound of this man's voice.
Sal: Welcome to the presentation
on using the quadratic equation.
Michele: Salman Kahn started making math videos
to help tutor his cousin,
but they became so popular he quit his job
with a hedge fund to work on them full time.
Now his online Khan Academy attracts countless
teachers and students.
NPR's Larry Abramson reports on the first effort
to brings Khan's approach into the classroom.
Larry: It is shocking. Three dissolute students
in Northern California are using school time
to play a computer game.
What's it called?
Student: Trigonometry Challenge. The one half. What?
Student: 2X. Oh, yeah. Okay.
Larry: Fifth graders Michael Ahn, Lucas Nuin,
and Reese Tumrie are actually hip deep
in the Trigonometry Challenge at Khan Academy.
They're gobbling up math problems
like a plate of Doritos.
This school is part of a pilot program
at Santa Rita Elementary School
in Los Altos, California.
They're making the Khan Academy
an integral part of the math curriculum.
Teacher Kami Thordarson says for half an hour a day
Khan Academy dunks these students into
a completely self-paced world.
Kami: They're all in different places.
Some of them are working on calculus and high school math.
Some of them are working on multiplication
of decimals, and that's okay.
Larry: It's okay because students who need help
can look up the appropriate video,
and listen to the academy's explanation
of concepts like direct and inverse variation.
Sal: I'll do direct variation on the left over here,
and I'll do inverse variation,
or two variables that vary inversely
on the right hand side over here.
Larry: Salman Kahn scribbles on the video screen
and guides students along
with his signature approach, patient and unthreatening.
Kami Thordarson says kids are comfortable turning
to Kahn for help.
Kami: It's kind of a private thing.
It's not like you have to raise your hand
in front of the whole class and say,
"I don't get this." You can go not get it
on your own and nobody needs to know about it.
Larry: There's nothing flashy about the videos or the exercises,
but somehow Khan has clearly hit a sweet spot
that makes this the most popular part of the day.
Student: You square that. That's 36,
and you square that. That's 9.
Larry: Kami Thordarson says during Khan time
her class looks more like a busy engineering office
than a traditional classroom.
Kid's collaborate. The teacher facilitates,
and she doesn't have to lecture.
Some kids like Hannah Albright work on their own
following online exercises as they do calculations
on a whiteboard or with pencil and paper.
Hannah: Nine minus seven. Then that would be 83.
It's like an online teacher.
They can help you anywhere.
Larry: You can go as fast as you want.
Hannah: Yeah. (students talking) We don't have to wait.
Next door in Kelly Rafferty's class
kids put their name on the board.
Some want help on a concept.
Others offer to teach something
that they've mastered.
Rafferty says that Kahn helps her deal
with the big class sizes that even
this affluent district is facing.
Kelly: Kahn has definitely helped me reach
all of the students so when you have that many kids,
you end up sort of teaching to the middle.
Kahn has allowed me to reach the lowest and the highest.
Larry: Much more than a textbook would Rafferty says.
Kahn Academy also offers a kind
of back office function.
While kids are working independently
on exercises, Rafferty checks her computer
to see how they're doing.
Kelly: With this I can look at all the kids,
and I can see who's struggling, who's not,
which they've passed, how many it took for them to pass.
It gives me a lot more information.
Larry: Information she can use
to see who needs extra help.
Santa Rita Elementary Principal Sandra McGonagle says
for her the Khan Academy has some
big advantages over other math materials.
Sandra: One, it's free, and it's created
by people who really just love math.
The quality is so great.
Larry: After this year's pilot program,
the Los Altos schools are going
to start using Khan Academy district wide
for 5th and 6th grade.
The Khan Academy is hoping to see how
this experiment plays out
in a wider range of schools.
They expand to at least 10 new schools next year.
Math class may never be the same.
Student: I'm okay. (students talking)
Larry: Larry Abramson, NPR News.