A School Built on Personalization

Sal Khan famously got his start in education by tutoring his cousin in math over the internet. Eventually he began creating YouTube videos, which turned into Khan Academy, a personalized learning nonprofit with thousands of videos, articles, and interactive exercises accessible from all over the world. At Khan Lab School, an innovative private school for kids ages 5 to 15+ founded in 2014—it doesn’t use traditional grades—education is designed around scalable models of personalization, mastery-based learning, and project-based learning. Khan’s virtual platform is one tool used to get students working at their own pace. And teachers act as “experts” who provide differentiated instruction, determining “which students might need extra help or an extra challenge.”

Khan believes his learning platform is just the starting point for new approaches that take full advantage of the physical learning environment: “I’ve always believed that the virtual is not in competition with the physical—that they can complement each other. So it’s not just Khan Academy. Ideally, it’s a tool that can be used with a physical classroom with teachers to really supercharge that experience.”

Video Production
Producer: Gillian Grisman
Editor: Todd Dayton
Camera: Zachary Fink, Mario Furloni