Academic Program
Empowering students to understand themselves and navigate their own path is fundamental to a Khan Lab School education.
Our School
KLS is a non-profit, mastery-based, independent school designed to implement the innovative educational ideas developed by Khan Academy founder, Sal Khan. In his 2012 book, The One World Schoolhouse, Khan outlines a vision for the future of K-12 education, based on student-centered and mastery-based models. In 2014, he founded Khan Lab School to test and refine these ideas in an actual school setting. It has now grown to a full K-12 program on two campuses, serving 280 students in Silicon Valley, and one campus in Wichita, Kansas.
Our Students
KLS believes that young people are capable of far more than society currently recognizes. Students at KLS embrace this philosophy in their unique journeys and experience the meaningful outcomes of mastery learning. Instead of competing against one another, they collaborate and make real contributions in the world around them. Our students are not singularly focused on chasing high marks or piling on AP courses. Instead, they take agency in their own learning, seek to understand course content, cultivate a range of interests and skills, and demonstrate their achievements in various contexts. Our students are innovators in every way, advancing their mastery-based education, and, most importantly, their own futures.
Our Curriculum
With Khan Lab School’s mastery-based learning model, students must demonstrate an understanding of content and skills identified in a course before progressing. KLS creates space within and beyond core academics for students to explore interests. Students can extend their learning beyond the classroom through dual enrollment and other programs. In this way, they further develop skills and apply learning within contexts meaningful to them–and often develop expertise at a far younger age than many would expect. Wellness, caring, and creativity are also central to community life.
Starting in kindergarten, their experience at Khan Lab School sets the pace, tone and expectations for learning. From the start, our students are guided by teachers and immersed in an atmosphere that fosters independent learning. It is in the K-6 years that the foundational elements of a Khan Lab School education are supported and acquired.
Our philosophy and methodologies lead students to see their educational and developmental journey as an exciting adventure that includes a willingness to stumble, fail, and try again. As they acquire knowledge and embrace growth, they begin to find their own voice and learn to work with their peers, often across grade levels.
Preparing for middle school, our sixth graders become more self-directed in their learning: They also become leaders of younger students as they continue sharing the knowledge they have acquired while developing their confidence, competence, and sense of self.
Students should always have the opportunity and incentive to fill in any gaps in learning and prove mastery.
This is in contrast to traditional models where a student may receive an 80% on a test (showing a 20% gap on what happened to be on the exam) and then be forced to move to the next topic that builds on those gaps. This results in a majority of American students entering college needing to remediate at the middle school level. Through mastery learning, we believe that all students can learn more, and often at a faster pace.
Lower School (Grades K-6)
Lower School Intersession: A time for hands-on exploration and creative learning beyond the classroom. Students engage in unique projects and experiences that spark curiosity and foster
real-world connections.
Middle School: Grades 7th and 8th
The middle school years are pivotal to students’ development both as independent learners and members of their advisory group.
There is a strong focus on fostering and strengthening executive function skills that enable students to make reasoned choices, recognize and regulate their emotions, and plan and organize their time.
They continue to identify, explore, and express their individual voices, learning how to articulate thoughts more clearly and effectively. There is a transition as students take more initiative toward setting goals, making and executing plans, assessing what they have accomplished, and evaluating what remains to be done. Self-reflection is encouraged to help students acquire greater awareness of themselves as individuals and in a social context.
While individual growth and initiative are important, students work collaboratively with each other in various settings, sometimes as the leader of a team and sometimes as a contributing member. This collaboration supports peer-to-peer interaction, builds trust, and fosters respect for others in our school community. The setting allows for blended age activities among the 7th and 8th graders and with upper school students. Academically, students who are ready can also participate in classes with their high school peers.
Upper School: Grades 9th-12th
Upper school, students continue their educational journey, honing academic skills, strengthening and expanding social and emotional learning, and deepening passions.
As independent learners, students are deepening their self-awareness and refining their individuality; together with their peers, they are finding effective, non-competitive ways to share
knowledge, solicit and apply constructive input toward continued improvement, fuel curiosity, develop solutions to problems, expand their world-view, and actively seek out personal and
academic growth.
The high school years offer opportunities for students to expand their knowledge base by pursuing deep, sustained study in areas that are of particular interest to them. Students also learn to identify and pursue opportunities to apply their knowledge, whether as peer-to-peer mentors giving and receiving information; as independent researchers seeking solutions to problems; or as volunteers, interns, or employees in organizations and businesses.
