Colorado Latest State to Adopt Khan's Schoolhouse.world for Free Tutoring
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 04/09/21
Small groups of
Colorado students can be paired up with tutors online through a new
agreement struck between two education nonprofits. The program is
being undertaken by Denver-based Colorado
Education Initiative (CEI) and Schoolhouse.world,
an organization launched last year by Khan Academy Founder Sal Khan
and others.
Tutoring is provided
by a corps of volunteers, some of whom are trained as teachers and
others who "just love to teach," as the site explained in
an FAQ.
All have gone through a vetting process. CEI works with the state's
Department
of Education, providing resources to help Colorado
schools with teacher training and other education improvements.
Similar programs
have been already been announced by the Departments of Education in
New
Hampshire and Rhode
Island. Like those initiatives, the Colorado program
will promote tutoring to students in pre-algebra, algebra, geometry,
trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, statistics and SAT preparation.
However, anybody in the world over the age of 13 can use the service
for free. Sessions run through Zoom and last from 20 minutes to an
hour, depending on the tutor's preferences.
Schoolhouse.world
said in a statement that it expected to expand to additional grade
levels and topics "soon." So far, the organization
reported, it has run tutoring sessions with students in more than 40
countries.
"As a close
partner for districts and schools across Colorado, it has been clear
to us, as schools emerge from COVID-related disruptions, that talking
about delivering high impact tutoring at scale is not enough.
Colorado students deserve these supports now," noted CEI
President and CEO, Rebecca Holmes. "Schoolhouse.world ensures
all Colorado students, regardless of financial considerations, can
get the live tutoring they need to meet their unique academic or
post-secondary needs. This is a terrific solution regardless of how
much students did or didn't miss out on last year."
"I've always
believed that every child should have access to a free, world-class
education," added Khan. "Khan Academy has been doing this
by offering free practice, instructional videos, and teacher tools.
Now with Schoolhouse.world, we're excited to work with the
communities across Colorado to supplement that with free, live
tutoring to students everywhere."
Colorado educators
can steer students to support on Schoolhouse.world through CEI's
platform, The
Hub. They can also meet
other teachers who are using the tutoring service.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.