Home School Specifics
WE UNDERSTAND THAT HOME SCHOOLERS WERE SOME OF THE EARLIEST USERS/ ADOPTERS OF KHAN ACADEMY. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT WAS TRUE? In a lot of ways, I was acting as a home school teacher for my cousins when I started Khan Academy. I wasn’t just helping them on their homework; I was teaching them things they hadn’t been exposed to in class yet. So it’s not surprising that other people doing similar things-like home schooling--would find these tools valuable. Also, a home schooling environment offers more flexibility than a traditional school. Home school parents can allow their children to progress at their own pace, go back to remediate any gaps in their knowledge, and take more agency over their own learning. These principles are core to Khan Academy’s philosophy, and I think they’re core to a lot of home schoolers as well. So it’s no surprise that home school families were among our first adopters.
HOW MANY USERS DOES KHAN ACADEMY CURRENTLY HAVE, AND ABOUT WHAT PERCENTAGE ARE CONNECTED WITH HOME SCHOOLING? In an average month, 12 million people use Khan Academy. Since we don’t ask users whether they’re home schooling when they sign up on Khan Academy, we don’t know the exact number of home schoolers using our site. Anecdotally, however, we know that there’s a significant community of home school families on Khan Academy. For example, in spring 2014 we surveyed a group of our most highly engaged users, and many of them told us that they use Khan Academy in a home school setting. The Khan Academy home page has a button for parents and a button for teachers.
WHAT IS THE RIGHT OPTION FOR A HOME SCHOOL PARENT TO GET STARTED? The core difference between these options is that the teacher interface helps you manage a larger cohort of students, while the parent interface is designed for users with just a handful of students. So if you’re a parent home schooling your own children--say two, three, four, or five kids-the parent interface makes a lot more sense. If your home school is scaled up--say you’re part of a co-op where one parent teaches students from several families--you might choose the teacher interface. That way, you can see progress reports for 30 students at a time. No matter which option you choose, you’ll be able to see the same progress information for your students. The difference is in just how this information is displayed.
10 • Texas Home School Coalition REVIEW
February 2015