Khan Lab School allows educators, administrators, and educational technology leaders to tour the school and participate in conversations about the model. Oxford Day Academy, a charter school in East Palo Alto, California, has publicly credited Khan Lab School with being the inspiration for key components of its model. Oxford Day Academy founder Mallory Dwinal conducted pilot work with students at Khan Lab School. Charla Harris, founder of Learning by Design Charter School in Los Angeles, has purportedly stated that she will use the Khan Lab School learning space as a model for how she will design the learning space of her elementary school. After visiting Khan Lab School in 2016, she stated that her school would offer personalized and project-based learning because “there’s not only an achievement gap, but also an innovation gap.” At the Arizona State UniversityGlobal Silicon Valley Summit in May 2017, Colleen Broderick of startup companyAltSchool drew comparisons between AltSchool and Khan Lab School, referencing the changing role of the educator and the absence of grades and grade bands.
Learning environment
In 2017, Khan Lab School worked with architect Danish Kurani to design and build a high school. Instead of traditional classrooms, the school has architecturally diverse spaces where faculty test different approaches to learning.The main space, called the commons, has various smaller classrooms and offices branching off from it. Physical and digital displays enable faculty to share their educational experiments with colleagues and visiting educators. A wide range of tools and settings allows students to work according to their preference and learning style.The school currently teaches about 80 kids from kindergarten to 11th grade, however the grades system is arranged by age and independence level. Students have an independence level ranging from IL1 to IL7. Each student must complete a certain task to progress through the independence level. Each level comes with new capabilities and responsibilities such as the ability to leave campus with friends for lunch. IL does not correspond with difficulty of available classes, as a mastery learning system is used. Once you master a concept or course you can move on to the next regardless of age or IL.
