Howard University is launching an algebra course for college credit at high schools in historically underserved communities created in partnership with Khan Academy, according to an announcement today.
The class will be coordinated by the National Education Equity Lab, an organization focused on advancing social mobility, and 11 high schools are participating this semester. The course will be made available to any school in the lab’s network in spring 2023.
“This effort will help open doors of opportunity to under-resourced students around the nation who too often are gated out of educational and professional opportunities because they lack the requisite math training, by no fault of their own,” Bourama Toni, chair of the math department at Howard, said in a press release. “We want to empower high school students to pass college algebra, and know that they can take on anything after that.”
Students will take the course on the Khan Academy platform with their high school teachers guiding them. They will also meet weekly on Zoom with Howard University teaching fellows. Midterms and finals for the course will be provided by Howard.
A group of 79 high school students participated in a pilot version of the course last spring. More than 90 percent of students who started the course finished it, and more than 80 percent earned transferable college credit.
“It’s exciting to see high school students succeed at college-level algebra,” Khan Academy founder Sal Khan said in the release. “These students are showing us what’s possible when we provide an opportunity for them to pursue a personalized learning plan with guidance from their teachers and teaching fellows. What’s more, they’re getting free college credit from Howard University.”
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