How We Measure Success

We believe in subject mastery as the real measure of learning success. Khan Academy encourages students to master a subject as well as test whether or not they have. The Khan Academy Lite in the first RACHEL version that we are currently using has a built-in tracking tool which monitors the progress of individual students.  We have utilized this tool to track each student’s math learning within Khan Academy modules and monitor for how the class is doing in their efforts towards achieving mastery. Below is a screen clip of the results from our RACHEL 1.0s.

The blue line represents the average of NPSE math achievement scores between 2018 and 2021 for the three village schools that we are currently working with. The Green Line was an average of the scores after a year of our program. Frankly we’re surprised and a little skeptical of this dramatic improvement. Because the students only have access to the Learning Center after school for a few hours and because there aren’t enough tablets for all students, we did not expect this much improvement. Nevertheless, it’s an encouraging sign. Next school year we plan to upgrade to RACHEL 4.0 which has dramatically improved progress tracking capabilities.

The rows are individual students. The columns are lessons. If the box is green that student has mastered that lesson. If a box is orange that student is struggling with that lesson and needs help from the coach.

Subject mastery is what really matters but we are realists. Test scores also matter. The test that matters most to a primary school student in Sierra Leone is the National Primary School Examination (NPSE) that students take at the end of primary school (6th grade). Their performance on this test determines whether they move on to secondary school and the quality of the school to which they are admitted. 

So far, our efforts are focused on primary school math. With 40% of the NPSE scores are based on math, we want to measure how much our program improves those scores.

We could use your help

Students’ progress is limited by the number of hours they can work on the system. Our tablets are old, require frequent recharging, and we would like 30 tablets per village.  If you can help buy new tablets please contact us at WorldPossibleSL@gmail.com