A University of Texas PhD who is considered one of the country’s shining stars in Inquiry Based STEM Learning (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) just completed a review of our Eagle’s progress in math.

The verdict? All Eagles are “doing well” – and many exceptionally well. For example, several Launchpadders have mastered over 700 Khan skills and are well on their way to completing all Khan math, through advanced Differential Calculus.

Even those who seem frustrated were deemed to be in the top 25% of all math learners their age, which is consistent with the progress we’ve seen on the SAT10 tests. A remarkable result since we haven’t taught any math since Acton Academy started.

Still, some Eagles are having more trouble with Khan Academy than others, for the following reasons:

•  Difficulties with Khan Academy itself: choosing the best strategies; bored with the videos or concerned that the videos don’t cover all necessary topics.
•  Khan Academy’s definition of mastery may be more rigorous than traditional schools, suggesting that the Eagles’ skills may be even stronger than the comparisons suggest;
•  Difficulty moving from a teacher directed classroom to the self-paced, largely independent, learning environment at Acton Academy.
•  An overall low interest in mathematics in a few Eagles.

The report concludes that “Acton Academy, because of its unique model, fiercely dedicated staff, and committed Eagles and parents, is in a position to….develop a comprehensive mathematics learning system that addresses:

1.  Appropriate credentials for college admissions,
2.  Internalization and application of mathematical thinking;
3. Relationships between mathematics and other courses of study. “

The report calls this the “brass ring of math education” and goes on to recommend Acton Academy:

• Inform parents and Eagles of Acton Academy’s math badge system;
• Continue leveraging Khan Academy as a tool;
• Allow high quality online courses from providers like EdX (Harvard-MIT) as a substitute for Khan Academy in upper level courses;
• Create comprehensive math quests of varying levels of intensity;
• Incorporate mathematics or mathematics history into other subject areas;
• Create systems to promote strong peer communication and collaboration in mathematics;
• Continue to take exams like Stanford 10 for comparison and college readiness reasons;
• Encourage Eagles to seek expert content knowledge from parents, peers or other experts to supplement their learning.

The following graduation standards were proposed for Eagles who want to apply to competitive universities:

Math Credentials

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the following best practices for Khan Academy success were recommended:

•  Have a plan: determine the number of skills per week you need to complete a mission by a certain date.
• Consistency counts: the most commonly referenced strategy was practicing skills on Monday/Tuesday and level up or do mastery challenges Wednesday – Friday. Other similar strategies work as well.
• When pursuing skills in order, use the skills list on the left hand of the screen, red square (image 1) as opposed to the queue on the right hand side.
• Understand your own signals for “being stuck”. Have strategies for breaking up the situation. See “Being Stuck” later in this paper for examples.
• Work the mathematics on paper in a deliberate, organized manner and make this a requirement for badges.
• Have alternate sources of mathematical information handy. See Alternate Learning Sources later in this report.

Bottom line, we still have a lot to learn about math in Learner Driven Communities, but the Eagles are doing quite well.