Larry Cuban is usually skeptical about technology but he visited Sal Khan’s experimental schools and came away impressed.
He compared them to John Dewey’s Lab School at the University of Chicago, where age-grading was abandoned and teachers had autonomy.
He concludes with what might be considered a caveat:
The tradition of challenging the dominant structure of the age-graded school and its “grammar of schooling” continues to this day with micro-schools in Silicon Valley and elsewhere illustrating anew that such reforms to the traditional “machinery of instruction” have resided, for the most part, in private schools where tuition runs high and students bring many economic and social advantages school. In a profound way, the high cost of these private schools and the resources available to their founders in experienced teachers, aides, technologies, space, and materials show clearly the prior conditions necessary not only to operate such schools in public venues but also what is needed to contest the prevailing “grammar of schooling.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s a cliche to say that the old classroom model no longer fits our needs today, and I usually treat that kind of statement like a red flag. But, to this layman, Khan’s school seems like it has some promise.
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Blending learning is boring, rote, and kids HATE it. It’s doing worksheets, just now on computer.
And some of Khan’s lessons are wrong or draw the wrong conclusions. His history ones are AWFUL.
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The school looks like an interesting design for a handful of Silicon Valley children whose parents have already provided them with obvious advantages. It seems to me that the people in the LAB school misunderstand how many public schools function today. In the lower grades teachers often provide flexible groups including whole group, small and even individual instruction. Students also work on projects in groups in science and social studies. Some schools even offer MAC (multi-age grouping) in 1st and 2nd or K and 1st grade to allow students of differing developmental and academic grouping. The Khan Lab school clearly offers more access to technology, but I do really know if this makes a big difference at this age. Before they unleash this approach, they should see if this is scalable with different diverse groups and larger numbers of students in a class.
The prevailing perception among the deformers is that teachers teach the same way they did a hundred years ago. They automatically claim all instruction is one size fits all. That was not what I saw in elementary classrooms. I saw teachers with flexible groups that were responsive to the needs of students. Most teachers in public schools want to do the best for their students, but the whole test and punish paradigm is sucking the life out of teaching, teachers and students. If we want public schools to move forward, we have to release schools from the yoke of testing which is doing more harm than any teacher ever would.
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$28,000 – $33,000 for what basically amounts to a Rocketship education (except that KLS probably doesn’t have as many of “those” kids as Rocketship does, which I suppose is what the price tag is for)??? Cuban didn’t got into a whole lot of detail, but all I’m hearing is online learning, combined with the “unique” (ahem) idea of not age-grouping children, but instead grouping them by “independence” (quotes because “independence” appears to be judged by children’s ability to independently do what the adults want them to do).
I know everyone here is shocked, but color me unimpressed.
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What color should I use? 🙂
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I’m thinking puce because that’s always reminded me of puke.
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puce = pepto colored? Been a while since I’ve worked with fabrics and the various names given to colors.
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Not quite the color I was thinking of. Interesting bit of history of the color itself.
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Puce is, according to Dictionary.com, “dark red or purple brown”. Sounds like puke to me. Just the name alone sounds like puke.
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There is also a puce green. Learn something new everyday, eh!
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which is pea soup green. Can you say Exorcist?
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It is obvious that these types of allegedly “innovative” schools work with motivated students that by age 5 were already avid readers that loved books because they were introduced to them as infants by their parents/guardians. In fact, with a motivated student that loves to read, just about anything works, but what about all the children that only start to read after they go to school and end up always behind?
In every class I taught for thirty years, there were students that loved to read and learn but a lot more that hated it and fought learning every day. That’s where teachers come in. Teachers that have the management skills to teach reluctant students to learn will beat everything else no matter what allegedly “innovative” methods they cook up.
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Students are grouped by “independence levels.” These strike me as re-conceptualized developmental levels. From this discussion the school seems to be organized to manage schedules for cohorts of learners. I would like to see what projects are undertaken in the visual arts and how these are managed, in addition to self-selected activities in the arts. https://khanlabschool.org/independence-levels
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“Yes, and in a purposeful way! We believe it’s important for students to learn from each other and teach one another. Students in different Independence Levels come together for small group seminars based on academic ability. These groups change from term to term.
During Genius Hour or Friday’s Extended Community Meeting, our older students learn how to be teachers to our younger students. In turn, our younger students build confidence interacting in a mixed-age setting and having their voices heard in front of a large group. Each student at KLS is assigned to a “Family” of students of various ages and interests who work collaboratively on community projects.”
Sounds a lot like student to student mentoring that occurs in most US public schools.
Not seeing anything innovative.
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Ahhh…so no teacher needed. I can’t believe this would be supported by John Dewey.
This is pathetic….
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This is crazy talk. The computers are the machinary!!!!!
Also, look at how the teacher looked into a child’s progress? She looked at a computer screen? Are you kidding me!!!???
This is so discouraging and makes no sense to me. No kid is a level…learning isn’t linear.
I also despise this talk about traditional learning at al.
Larry Cuban is wrong.
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Just look at parochial schools that use very little if any technology.
They are still graduating successful students who contribute to society. The tech community is doing everything it can to justify its means.
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MARKETING WORDS … used to DECEIVE; Larry CUBAN is SO WRONG.
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Sickening. Inane. When Khan, funded by Bank of America among other not so beloved corporate entities, comes up with an idea for equitable funding in public education instead of “scalable” “technological” “innovation”, let me know. I will be all ears. In the meantime, my students will publish their works on the web using Chromebooks when Khan Academy .com freezes over.
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