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How has California鈥檚 third-largest school district, serving mostly low-income Latinos and blacks, been propelling its students to college by raising their SAT scores and boosting their state test scores?

Chris Steinhauser, superintendent of Long Beach Unified School District for the past 18 years, will tell you that forging the first formal partnership with Khan Academy 鈥� a leading provider of free online instructional videos 鈥� has been key.

In 2016, Long Beach USD first offered Khan鈥檚 SAT preparation to more than 300 seniors with low scores 鈥� students whose families couldn鈥檛 afford the expensive college-test preparation offered by private tutoring companies. After using Khan鈥檚 interactive online tool, nearly 40 percent of them 鈥� mostly students of color 鈥� reached the minimum score that made them eligible to apply for state colleges and four-year universities. Between the 2014-15 and 2018-19 school years, the number of Long Beach USD students graduating with a college-eligible index increased 20 percentage points, according to data the district reported in May of last year.

鈥淚t is truly a game-changer for kids and families in closing the achievement gap,鈥� Steinhauser said in an interview back in 2018 when he sat down with Khan Academy founder Sal Khan to talk about their budding partnership.

Beyond the early SAT prep for all seniors, the wider pilot program that launched in 2017-18 incorporated Khan Academy鈥檚 videos into math and other subject instruction for younger students. About 90 teachers volunteered to integrate Khan videos into their lessons for at least 30 minutes per week. More than half of them were math teachers in 20 of the district鈥檚 middle schools, who together taught more than 5,300 students. By the end of the 2017-18 school year, one-third of the district鈥檚 more than 70,000 students were using the videos.

A research of the pilot program released by Khan in September in collaboration with the district revealed that Long Beach teachers using their videos and interactive tools for one class period per week for at least 30 minutes was associated with students achieving a 22-point increase on the state math test 鈥� the 2018 Smarter Balanced Assessment (CAASPP) 鈥� compared with the previous year.

The analysis, for which the district provided non-identifying student-level data, does not conclude that the use of the program alone caused the gains in math, acknowledging that other factors may have contributed. In fact, a Chalkbeat points out that previous studies on Khan have not been able to prove a direct correlation between student gains and the use of Khan Academy tools.

Steinhauser said that students whose teachers are using Khan as a regular resource in their classrooms are outscoring their counterparts who are not. 鈥淚n the same school, in the same subject, same kind of kids, teachers using it get much higher scores.鈥�

Steinhauser said in the 2018 interview that while the use of Khan online videos was free, teacher training was paid for out of the district鈥檚 professional development budget. 鈥淲e spent a lot of money on buying devices and in professional development. That was intentional, but the payoff is our kids are getting into college.鈥�

In a released in 2019 along with the research analysis, Steinhauser says that 93 percent of the district鈥檚 sixth- to 12th-graders were using Khan Academy last year, and Assistant Superintendent Christopher Lund said at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year that the partnership had expanded to at least five Long Beach USD elementary schools.

The district is now paying Khan for some services, while the use of instructional online videos, such as the ones for Advanced Placement courses, and the use of data dashboards for teachers are free.

Using Long Beach Unified as point of reference, Khan launched a broad initiative in the fall, , hoping to reach more classrooms with its services and supports on a paying basis. It followed that up with a personalized learning tool that a handful of other districts are now paying to use. Together, the two new Khan programs are in 11 school districts, stretching from California to Florida, including two of the nation鈥檚 largest, Houston and Clark County, Nevada, according to the company.

One of those new partnership districts, California鈥檚 Compton Unified, embarked on a relationship with Khan after watching what was happening in Long Beach.

鈥淚t was definitely a little neighborly competition to say, 鈥楬ey, if Long Beach is doing this, why isn鈥檛 Khan over here working with us, too?鈥欌�� Greg Puccia, a Compton school official who oversees curriculum, told in September.

Compton Unified is paying Khan Academy $44,000 this school year to institute a program modeled after the one in Long Beach, the news site reported.

The Long Beach experiment

Long Beach Unified, south of Los Angeles, serves 72,000 students in its 85 schools. Nearly 60 percent of them are Latino, 65 percent are from low-income families, and 15 percent are English learners.

Steinhauser, who was both a student and a parent in the district, personally called 340 seniors from low-income families with the lowest SAT scores in 2016 and encouraged them to use the free Khan videos to prepare for the test and improve their scores the next time around.

After using the video tutoring, 130 of those students 鈥� 96 percent of whom were students of color 鈥� were able to qualify for the California State University system in the 2016-17 school year. Overall, the district saw a jump from 38 percent to 58 percent in the number of Cal State-eligible seniors from the 2014-15 school year to its 2018-19 senior class.

The 23 CSU campuses use an for admissions, which calculates high school GPA and SAT or ACT test scores.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a really great equity issue,鈥� Steinhauser said. 鈥淲e saw the power of it, so the next step was to put it in every classroom so we could accelerate the work and the outcomes.鈥�

During the pilot program, teachers were not required to use the videos, but he said that they were encouraged to formally incorporate them into their lessons. Teachers 鈥� along with district staff who are responsible for curriculum, technology and instruction 鈥� received formal training in the fall of 2018 by Khan that included on-site sessions, webinars and support materials. Khan offered teachers professional development with ongoing virtual support throughout the year.

Khan also created the , an analytic tool that keeps track of students鈥� progress through an individual online account provided by Khan for each student so the teacher can identify where a particular student is failing to grasp concepts and recommend specific practice assignments to reinforce skills.

During the 2017-18 school year, the number of teachers actively using the videos in regular classroom instruction grew exponentially, from 120 to almost 500 鈥� nearly 16 percent of the district鈥檚 3,200 teachers.

In addition, about 7,000 students in the district鈥檚 K-8 afterschool program used Khan videos when getting homework assistance or tutoring on a wide variety of subjects during the 2017-18 pilot year.

In the summer of 2018, the videos were added to the summer school program, and in the fall of that year, the pilot expanded to include all fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms. Even parents have gotten training so they can use the videos to help their children at home.

For Khan鈥檚 founder, the Long Beach partnership provided a chance to show how fast students could increase learning when teachers used the videos as part of their regular classroom instruction. Sal Khan described Long Beach USD as being unique in implementing the program 鈥渨ith high fidelity and in a rigorous way.鈥�

During the 2018 interview, he praised Steinhauser, who announced in December that he would retire at the end of this school year after leading the district that has become nationally recognized as exemplary and innovative. EdSource that Steinhauser is one of the nation鈥檚 longest-serving urban superintendents, having spent nearly two decades in a job whose average length of tenure is about six years.

鈥淗ere鈥檚 a really innovative superintendent and exactly the type of district that if things can work really well here 鈥� it鈥檚 large, it鈥檚 diverse 鈥� it can work anywhere else in the country,鈥� Khan said.

鈥榁irtual is nice鈥� 鈥斅燽ut real classrooms even more powerful

Khan announced its new paid initiative , which, in addition to Long Beach and Compton, includes Madera Unified School District in California, Seminole County Public Schools in Florida, Houston Independent School District and Detroit Public Schools for the 2019-20 school year.

Later in 2019, it launched , a new personalized learning tool that integrates assessments that help teachers identify student learning needs and deliver differentiated instruction. According to Khan, five districts launched MAP Accelerator pilots that are now reaching 180,000 students.

They are Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada; Jefferson County School District in Louisville, Kentucky; and three others in California: Glendale Unified School District in Glendale, Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Watsonville and Madera, which is using both offerings from Khan.

As for the free online tutorials covering a range of K-12 subjects that first defined the Mountain View, California-based nonprofit, Khan says they are used by more than 18 million learners every month, in more than 190 countries, and have been translated into 18 languages. Just last week, Khan reported that its free SAT preparation hit a milestone of 10 million registered users.

It鈥檚 a long way from the virtual tutoring sessions that founder Sal Khan created in his closet in 2008 to help his cousin.

In July 2018, Khan launched a free educational app ages 2 to 5 with reading, counting and storytelling activities. The same year, Puerto Rico鈥檚 College Board began working with Khan on Spanish practice for the .

鈥淰irtual is nice,鈥� Khan said, 鈥渂ut when it鈥檚 coupled with incredible teachers and administrators and done in the right way, that is when you really get the power.鈥�

Khan in the classroom

Long Beach teachers in grades 6 and 7 used the videos in their math instruction. In high school, the videos were used in Algebra I and three AP courses 鈥� U.S. History, World History and Statistics 鈥� subjects in which students needed to improve their passing rate.

Mary Hoang, a math teacher at Charles Evans Hughes Middle School, used Khan videos throughout most of the 2017-18 school year.

Hoang taught her lesson, gave a quiz, and then students, who all have their own Chromebooks, could watch a Khan video on the lesson, which could take about 20 minutes out of the 50-minute class. Then students who scored low on the first quiz would take it again, repeating the process until their scores improved, she explained.

鈥淪ome of my students are already recognizing they are getting better at math,鈥� Hoang said during a class demo in 2018. 鈥淥ther students are already going beyond it, coming to me and saying they found algebra and geometry videos they are watching. I see they鈥檙e exploring on their own videos of subjects they will be taking in high school.鈥�

Preston Curtis, one of Hoang鈥檚 students, said, 鈥淏efore using Khan, I used other websites where I got stuck and confused. With Khan, it makes sense to me. It makes it easier for our teacher and for us.鈥�

His classmate Brandon Armenta said, 鈥淚 used to get a lot of B鈥檚. By using Khan, I get many A鈥檚 in math and history.鈥�

Hoang also assigned the videos as homework and to prepare students for the state tests given in May. She said teachers get extra support online or via email anytime they need it. Steinhauser said Khan has never turned down any district request: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 say that鈥檚 true with all our partners.鈥�

Hoang said she started using Khan a few years earlier at home for her own personal use and 鈥渓oved it.鈥�

鈥淲hen the district said we were going to be trained to use it [in the classroom], I thought for sure I鈥檓 signing up for that training,鈥� said Hoang, who had been teaching math for over 13 years, nine of them at Long Beach Unified. 鈥淎s an educator, I think it is amazing.鈥�

The technological part of the pilot was 鈥渁 very easy rollout,鈥� Steinhauser said.

鈥淎lmost all schools have one device per student, and we are also working with nonprofit organizations in the city to make sure all students can have access to a device and internet at public spaces,鈥� he said.

Steinhauser said the district also promoted internal competition among students and schools using Khan 鈥� for example, to see who could get higher scores in math assessments.

鈥淲e get monthly reports; we hold everyone accountable in a healthy way, telling schools, 鈥榃hy are other schools getting such and such results?鈥� So we encourage them to have a healthy competition,鈥� Steinhauser said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 even a competition among students 鈥� they love it.鈥�

Hoang said she encourages parents to use Khan at home as a resource to help support their children, and she has received positive parent input. 鈥淭hey know there鈥檚 a link between them [their kids] using Khan and their improvement with their test scores,鈥� she said.

鈥淭heir feedback has been 100 percent positive,鈥� Steinhauser said. 鈥淭hey see it as a very powerful tool.鈥�

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