The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) was awarded a $356,200 three-year grant from the Lumina Foundation to support a developmental mathematics demonstration project that provides a high-quality, low-cost instructional platform coupling Khan Academy and community college resources.

NEBHE estimates that between 50% and 70% of all incoming community college students in New England will need one or more developmental math courses.

The project aims to boost the number of high-quality college degrees and credentials by improving student performance in developmental mathematics, and to further drive reform of developmental education, including new designs, lower costs and improved student outcomes.

The NEBHE project will leverage Khan Academy's math content (conceptual videos, practice exercises and adaptive assessment environment) for community college students and faculty in various developmental education delivery models including flipped classrooms.

Most of Khan Academy's work to date has focused exclusively on K-12 schools, but it has recently developed a new interest in working with postsecondary education institutions. The NEBHE demonstration project promises outcomes and deliverables that will support the adaptation of no-cost tools to accelerate developmental mathematics reform and provide timely research data.

The initiative will initially involve eight to twelve New England community colleges, but will ultimately benefit students and colleges nationwide. Pilot sites will be selected in late 2012.

The project is fully aligned with current national initiatives to increase college completion including the Common Core State Standards and remedial education reform along with advancing free courseware and technology-enabled instruction.

For more information about the project, contact:
Stafford Peat, Project Director
(617) 357-9620 x109
speat[at]nebhe.org