Bogdan Yamkovenko is the efficacy manager at Khan Academy.
Mastery Learning
Learning is a key component of measuring the success of an educational technology. It is not always easy to quantify learning. Khan Academy is based on mastery learning principles, which encourages students to engage in both instruction and practice until they are successful in the practice and assessment tasks before moving on to another skill. According to our previous studies, spending more than 30 minutes a week on Khan leads to better learning outcomes.1 According to our most recent research, success in external assessments is not only related to time spent but also focusing on achieving proficiency or higher.
Focusing on proficiency is a better measure of learning outcomes at Khan Academy
Khan Academy can provide a reliable measure of math progress if it is correlated to other valid and well-known assessments of math achievement. The MAP Growth mathematics standardized test is one such valid assessment. We analyzed the correlation between MAP Growth Mathematics scores and different indicators of mastery progression…
