Teaching K-12 Math Online: Reasoning Mind CEO Alex Khachatryan (Part 6)

SM: In moving out of state, have you had to adapt the curriculum at all? Is there any difference between curricula state to state?

AK: Not much. There is some difference, but we covered it through offline lessons that we develop quickly. In our experience, 80%–90% is already there. It is also important to note that when we initially developed the curriculum we did not intend to develop it solely for Texas.

SM: How many grades are you covering at this point?

AK: We cover grades 2–6. This will be the first year for our 2–4 curriculum since we just finished our pilot last year. We call it our Basic 1 curriculum, which is supplemental, not core. We are not able to create core curricula that quickly, nor do we need to teach everything that every state requires at those grade levels. We only need to teach the essential objectives for students to be able to learn our material at the fifth-grade level.

Getting schools to accept Reasoning Mind is not easy. Entering with a supplemental program is much easier. Offering a supplemental plan does not require schools to jump through hoops and allows us to prove the value of Reasoning Mind. It prepares the school to transition to using Reasoning Mind as a core curriculum by fifth grade.

SM: What about the structure of your organization? Are you continuing down the philanthropy road?

AK: We are a non-profit and are funded solely by Texas philanthropy as well as a few national level corporations. We have been supported by the Dell foundation at the national level and by the ExxonMobil Foundation. Gerald McElvy, the president of the foundation, serves as the vice president of our board of trustees. He is involved in the day-to-day issues we face. They are very focused on improving math and science education at the K-12 level and have been extremely generous in extending huge support to Reasoning Mind.

Winning the support of ExxonMobil was not an easy undertaking. Setting up an appointment with them took us about two years. We finally got a team to visit, and the first thing we heard from them was “We have been asked to meet with you, but please do not count on getting any support from our foundation; we are pretty much doing a favor to the people who arranged this meeting”, so I gave them the presentation. At the end Gerald looked at me and said, “This is really different from the hundreds of proposals we receive daily”.

He did not know how to verify everything I was explaining, so he offered an unusual due diligence project. He offered to put one fifth grader on our system, and if this student learned mathematics, we would gain their support. The fifth grader in question was his son. I immediately accepted the challenge, but I added one constraint. I told him it was not meant for unsupervised use and that since his son would be using this system from home then Gerald would have to assume the role of a Reasoning Mind teacher/parent. I gave him a teacher manual for this. He agreed as well.

Gerald worked with his son on the Reasoning Mind system over the summer, and in the fall he announced that the ExxonMobil foundation was extremely excited about extending the support of our project. He loves telling this story and explains that the system did wonders for his son. His son was not interested in mathematics even though he was not failing any courses. He learned mathematics at a significantly higher level and started outperforming the gifted and talented kids at his school. He now has his second son on this system.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Teaching K-12 Math Online: Reasoning Mind CEO Alex Khachatryan
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