CONCORD, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Education announced a first in the nation program partnership with Sal Khan and Schoolhouse.world that will provide free tutoring to New Hampshire high school students. Schoolhouse.world is a platform that connects people around the world to have free, small-group tutoring sessions. It currently offers tutoring in high school math and SAT prep, with the aim of expanding across more ages and topics.
In the midst of COVID-19, the opportunity to access personalized help and dig deep into problems has been the central struggle faced by teachers, parents and students during remote and hybrid learning at-home. It is this sense of urgency that prompted Sal Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, to find a solution by partnering with his college friend, Shishir Mehrotra, cofounder and CEO of Coda. Together, with a handful of volunteers, they created schoolhouse.world.
“We are thrilled that New Hampshire could become the inaugural launch state for this incredibly important platform,” said Frank Edelblut, NH commissioner of education. “Sal Khan is a legend in education, known mostly for the Khan Academy, which supports over 100 million students around the world. Now New Hampshire students will have access to this live support and the ability to mentor other students. It is a timely solution that addresses so many needs.”
“Partnering with New Hampshire was an easy decision,” said Sal Khan. “From the first conversation, they saw the value that Schoolhouse.world could bring to the students of the state. The commissioner stayed focused on the project and his department was able to move quickly to help us inform New Hampshire families that we’re ready to provide this needed assistance at such a critical time.
Over the holiday break, the department placed social media ads to let families know that the service was coming and over 300 signed up to receive information about the launch.
Schoolhouse.world first opened its virtual doors to tutors and students from the public in early 2020 through a prototype site built in Coda. People from all over the world volunteered to tutor sessions, including high school students, teachers, professionals and PhDs. Since then, the Schoolhouse.world team has run over 1,100 tutoring sessions with students from more than 40 countries, while working to develop scalable systems to monitor sessions and train new tutors.
Students interested in receiving tutoring support and both students and adults wanting to volunteer to support others can go to the website for additional information.