Phillips Academy - Khan Academy and Phillips Academy break ground with innovative partnership

"One night last August, Bill Scott sent a new batch of math problems to Khan Academy from his home computer in Andover. By then, the chair of Phillips Academy’s math department was beginning to get the hang of things, turning out 30 problems for the website in a matter of hours rather than days. He turned off his computer and headed to bed, with the latest problem set—graphs, functions and their derivatives—still on his mind. In the morning, Scott logged on to the Khan Academy website—and could see that Sal Khan himself had uploaded the problem set to the live site at 9:20 a.m. (that’s 6:20 a.m. for Khan in Silicon Valley). Scott checked back three hours later to find that Khan already had created four new videos to accompany Scott’s lesson. 'That guy is incredible,' Scott marveled. 'He’s got a lean and mean operation.' So, too, does PA’s math department, whose members have been mining, finding and organizing their favorite BC calculus problems to help beef up Khan Academy’s highest-level math offerings as part of an unprecedented partnership with the online learning site. 'This is the first time we’ve partnered with a high school to substantively drive a lot of our core content,' said Khan ... Since July, the math department has posted approximately 240 problems, which have been tried by more than 12,000 unique viewers. By fall 2014, Scott expects to work with the Khan Academy team to have a complete BC calculus course up and running on the site. 'We’re thrilled to partner with Khan Academy in developing a BC calculus course that will reach anyone with Internet access and a desire to stretch themselves in this particular area of study,' said Phillips Academy Head of School John Palfrey. 'Sharing the resources of PA—in this case, the talents of our faculty—with those beyond campus fits precisely within our mission.'

The partnership between Andover and Khan Academy began last spring, when Sal Khan, at the invitation of Palfrey, met with students and faculty on campus to explore ways to collaborate. Over the summer, Scott and colleagues Chris Odden and Matt Lisa visited the online academy’s California headquarters, where they met with Khan and his team ..."