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The Next Lessons
Khan Academy began in 2004 as a family favor: To help his teenaged cousins understand a few math concepts, hedge fund analyst Salman Khan (MBA 2003) offered after-school math tutoring via phone calls and explainer videos. A decade later, Khan Academy has become an online education juggernaut, serving some 10 million students a month, and used in more than 300,000 classrooms around the world to teach math, science, arts, economics, and more. Khan, who now leads a team of 60 at the non-profit, counts Microsoft’s Bill and Melinda Gates, philanthropists Ann and John Doerr (MBA 1976), and Google’s Eric and Wendy Schmidt among his supporters.
So how far can Khan Academy extend its reach?
“We have a bunch of partnerships,” Khan said during his May return to campus, where he not only delivered the 2014 Class Day address but also told his story to an auditorium full of students and their parents on the eve of graduation. “Khan Academy started, for the most part, with me producing content. As it grew—our whole team working with others to write exercises and simulation software—we started to realize, hey, this is a pretty good platform,” said Khan. That makes it possible for subject-expert organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art, Stanford Medical School, and the Brookings Institution to contribute educational content on the visual arts, medicine, and health care, respectively. “We’re also launching some content—literally, launching content—with NASA,” he added.
One of the most significant developments Khan cited is a new partnership with the College Board, a nonprofit that helps prepare students for college through standardized test preparation and other programs. “The College Board has recognized that there has been inequity in terms of preparing for college,” he said, referring to the pricey, private tutoring services available to those who can afford the fees. “Because the College Board is working with us in a very deep way to create not just a free tool, but the best thing that also happens to be free, I think we have a good shot at leveling the playing field a little bit.”
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