“Students here are really self-motivated… they empower themselves to learn.” 13 yr old student

Dominic LIechti Executive Director & President

KHAN Lab School

Silicon Valley, Mountain View, CA

Google Building - Khan Academy

Founder Sal Khan - One World Schoolhouse

One Classroom - Breakout Rooms

Mixed Age - InDEPENDENCE Progression

Personalized - Self Paced - Project BAsed - SEL

KLS Learning DesignHumanizing the Classroom While Building Sustainable RelationshipS

“The teachers are part of the community: they are advisors, like coaches.” 10 yr old student

Putting the student at the center.

AOTArt of Teaching

ACOAcademic & Character Outcomes

ATLApproach to Learning

AOLArchitecture of Learning

Student

KLS Vision: Designing student-centered global learning experiences,

accessible to the world.

ATLApproach to Learning

● Personalized● Project-Based

○ Interdisciplinary○ Graduate Profile Attributes

● Inquiry● Mastery-Based● Assessment● Research & Development Lab

Student

What is our approach to learning at KLS?

Project Based Learning…Project-Based Learning at KLS

AOLArchitecture of Learning

● Independence Groupings● Student Agency● Year-Round - Extended-Day● Mixed-age - Peer Learning● Immersion Weeks● Community Learning● Learning Space

Student

How is the learning experience structured?

MIX Aged - Peer Learning…

Hear from the students at Khan Lab School

KLS Independence Progression

“At KLS, We can learn things that we are interested in learning.”11 yr old student

AOTArt of Teaching

● Expert● Global Citizen● Mentor ● Coach● Curator● Tutor● Project Designer● Assessor● Life-long Learner

Student

How are we redefining the role of a team and team member?

How do we facilitate student learning at KLS?

ACOAcademic & Character Outcomes

● Graduate Profile○ Character Strengths○ Global Citizenship○ Creation○ Purpose○ Independence○ Foundational Fluencies &

Deeper Learning Concepts

● Portfolio● Transition

Student

What does a KLS student embody?

KLS Graduate Profile

It’s cool to see that no matter what your age, all the kids at all ages can be learning whatever they are ready to learn.

13 yr old student

BackUPIntroducing the Khan Lab School

ATLApproach to Learning

Personalized. Each student’s education is developed and shaped by the student, working with our team. Whenever possible the education experience is customized to the student’s academic path and pace. We leverage blended-learning as an important tool in an effective personalized strategy.

Project-Based. Project-based learning [PBL] is fundamental to the Lab School experience. Students learn best when their school experiences have context and are connected to students’ lives and global affairs. PBL involves real-life, augmented and virtual contexts. We aim for students to spend half their time at KLS learning through projects, often of their own design informed by their independence level. All projects are interdisciplinary and connect to selected goals within the Graduate Profile (character strengths, cognitive skills, global citizenship, creation, purpose, independence, foundational fluencies & deeper learning concepts).

Inquiry. A meaningful inquiry gives direction to student projects. Concepts, “the big ideas”, are explored through inquiry arcs. The inquiry connects knowledge from core skills to context and concepts. Inquiries are geared toward solving real world problems. Students will develop the skills to create meaningful inquiries themselves.

Mastery-Based. Learning and advancing through our curriculum happens when each student has fully mastered target objectives, concepts and skills. In most schools, time spent learning is constant while the quality and level of content mastery varies. At KLS, the opposite is true: learning time is variable— but the quality and level of mastery for all students is constant.

Assessment. The approach to learning is informed by diagnostic, formative and summative assessment, goal tracking, frequent one-on-one conferences with teachers, review of data from online tools. Qualitative and quantitative assessment data is shared with students and parents on an ongoing basis, and during student-led parent-teacher conferences.

Research and Development Lab. As a lab school, we monitor existing and new findings in education research and learning science to inform our programmatic choices. We continuously reflect on our successes and challenges, student outcomes and stakeholder feedback. And we commit to agile iteration to improve our program and share our learning broadly.

Approach to Content

Approach to Concepts

Approach to Continuous

Improvement

Approach to Context

What is our approach to learning at KLS?

Student

AOLArchitecture of Learning

Independence Groupings. Rather than grouping students by age or academic ability, we group students by independence level. Students are given as much structure and support as they need to be successful in their academic and character growth.

Student Agency. We believe in creating a platform for students to develop their ability to take action, assume responsibility for their behavior in a safe learning environment, and apply all this in unfamiliar situations. To support the development of student agency, students learn how to set meaningful goals and hold themselves accountable for their learning and personal development. Students own their learning and have a voice in their school experience.

Year-Round, Extended-Day. We provide a substantive learning environment for an extended day and year-round schedule. We aim to coordinate immersive learning opportunities at KLS during school breaks. Students may find it necessary to work on their goals outside of the school day or space, but we do not assign mandatory daily homework. We believe students need time for family, rest and interests outside of school.

Mixed Age/Peer Learning. Students learn from each other and teach one another. Older students learn how to be teachers to our younger students through regularly scheduled interactions, in which they both give and receive feedback. The mixed age setting is intended to foster collaboration and impactful relationships rather than competition.

Community Learning. Students receive mentorship from community members, which prepares them

for apprenticeships and internships. Students also learn from the community through guest speakers,

field studies and community service. Students exhibit their work to a public audience multiple times

throughout the year both to give back to the community and learn from their feedback and expertise.

Learning Space. The physical design of KLS supports the tenets of our Learning Design.

How is the learning experience structured?

Student

How are we redefining the role of a team and team member?

How do we facilitate student learning at KLS?

AOTArt of Teaching

Professional Role of the Team Member at KLS:

Expert. Team members have expertise in a particular field of education or discipline and engage in professional development to remain at or reach the top of their field. Global Citizen. Team members bring global experience to their work, and embrace the perspectives of others.Mentor. Team members guide student and team member learning and growth. As mentors, teachers meet 1-on-1 for regular goal-setting, monitoring and support check-ins. Team members challenge and inspire students, and each other, by providing consistent, constructive feedback.Curator. Team members gather and synthesize content, context and concepts for learning.Tutor. Team members offer 1-on-1 and small group mini-lessons to deepen conceptual understanding.Project Designer. Team members create high quality and innovative projects for contextualized learning, in collaboration with colleagues and students.Assessor. Team members review student work and progress, and use data to assess students’ independence and to gauge progress on mastery of content.R&D. Team members adopt and develop best practices, contributing their own learnings and best practices to the larger education community.Life-long Learner. Team members are role models who exemplify lifelong curiosity and exploration.

Traits of a KLS Team Member:

Personality. We are compassionate, dedicated, entrepreneurial individuals and embody the growth

mindset we strive to instill in our students. We are flexible and willing to adapt to change, while

maintaining focus. We embody confidence with humility.

Mindset. We are inspired by our mission and bring that enthusiasm to work every day. We live and work

with highest integrity and accountability for our actions. We establish a healthy learning culture and

optimize the capabilities of each individual, while ensuring a work-life balance.

Actions. We engage in open, honest feedback. We challenge the status quo and take intellectual risks. We

empower the individual while fostering collaboration. We reflect on our efficacy and strive to continuously

adapt and improve.

Student

What does a KLS student embody?

ACOAcademic & Character Outcomes

GRADUATE PROFILE

Traits of a Graduate● Character Strengths. Students practice being conscientious, curious, entrepreneurial, perseverant,

self-aware, self-regulated and socially intelligent.● Cognitive Skills. Students develop strong habits of the mind, such as communication, inquiry, analysis

and synthesis, diagnosis, innovation, reasoning and managing complexity. ● Global Citizenship. Students spend time abroad, collaborate with foreign counterparts, and learn to

communicate in another language. Our world is increasingly interconnected - our students need to have a global lens and empathy across cultures.

● Creation. Students build their creative confidence to develop ideas and solutions through design thinking, engineering, leadership and through the expression of artistic and emotional beauty.

● Purpose. Students explore and develop a talent or passion during their years at KLS, which will be highlighted in their portfolio.

● Independence. Students develop the capacity to set, meet and hold themselves accountable for meaningful goals on their own.

Foundational Fluencies & Deeper Learning Concepts● Students achieve fluency in reading, writing, math, foreign language, computing and digital literacy.

They are also exposed to deeper learning concepts in wellness, integrated arts, integrated science, civics, physics, chemistry, biology, finance, global societies, economics and statistics.

PORTFOLIOWhile at KLS, students build a portfolio of work that displays mastery across academic and non-academic domains, from core skills to global citizenship, sciences, arts and beyond.

TRANSITIONSStudents who meet the requirements of our graduate profile are fully prepared to achieve success and significance in college or career, and life.

Student