Flipping for math: A compelling way to teach math — ‘flipping’ the classroom

The Boston Globe reports:

Now there is a compelling solution in math education, one that I dearly wish had been around when I was a kid. Called the Khan Academy, it’s a free website that offers a large library of startlingly clear mini-lectures, combined with software that generates exercises, feedback, and encouragement in the form of points and badges inspired by the video game world.

Last year the Los Altos school district in California decided to try out the Khan Academy for a few of their math classes. These classrooms were “flipped’’: The students listened to the lectures at home, and then did problem sets on laptops at school, where the teacher could help.

Before Khan, 23 percent of students in a class of struggling seventh graders scored “proficient’’ on a standardized test, with the rest lagging behind. After just one year, 35 percent scored proficient, and 6 percent were “advanced.’’ Some fifth graders were well into algebra. Students and teaches loved it, and this year Los Altos is trying Khan in all the fifth and sixth grade classes.

The Khan Academy makes progress!