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Tag: khan academy

  • Five Easy Ways to Build ELA Skills with Khan Academy (Grades 4–10)

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    Hi, ELA educators! I’m Heather, a former middle school teacher and current content creator here at Khan Academy.

    I’m excited to share five ways you can use our new, standards-aligned 4th–10th grade ELA courses to support student learning in your classroom.

    1. Build test-ready readers with weekly spiral review.

    At Khan Academy, we design our ELA practice to mirror the rigor and question types students will encounter on state assessments.

    A simple way to prepare students without overloading them is to  assign one Khan Academy ELA lesson each week.

    This keeps key reading and vocabulary skills fresh all spring long and works beautifully while you pull small groups or confer with individual learners.

    Plus, bonus reading-strategy articles for grades 4–8 and test-taking-strategy articles for grades 9–10 get students ready to tackle any assessment that comes their way.

    Top tip: Research shows students learn more deeply when they write by hand. Try our printable note-taking template, or use the editable digital version.

    2. Unlock richer class discussion by flipping your ELA lessons.

    Our ELA articles and videos are intentionally short, engaging, and designed to teach one clear, transferable reading strategy at a time.

    Try assigning a Khan Academy lesson for homework before introducing a skill or text in class.

    You’ll walk into class with:

    • A snapshot of what students already understand
    • A clearer sense of who needs extra support
    • More time for meaningful, text-based activities and discussions

    Students walk in ready to annotate, analyze, debate, and write.

    3. Use high-interest passages to spark debate and deep thinking.

    Khan Academy’s long-passage practice includes:

    📚 Popular and classic literary texts like To Kill a Mockingbird
    📰 High-interest informational texts like “Can video games teach survival skills?”

    Use the built-in questions to ground comprehension, then go deeper with:

    • whole-class discussions,
    • text-based debates,
    • argument writing, and
    • small-group analysis,

    Our pro/con articles—like “Should We Have Zoos?”—are especially helpful for teaching argumentative writing and evidence-based reasoning.

    4. Turn ELA practice into a game students will actually love.

    Engaging students in ELA lessons can be tough—but it doesn’t have to be.

    Take Khan Academy ELA questions and turn them into quick, energetic games, like this one:

    ELA Basketball 🏀

    1. Put students into groups of four. Give each group a small whiteboard.
    2. Project a Khan Academy exercise question.
    3. Give groups time to answer and to justify their reasoning.
    4. Correct answer = they shoot a basket.
    5. Strong explanation = bonus shot.
    6. Points given for each basket they make!
    7. Have students rotate who is writing within their group and repeat the process with a new question.

    It’s simple, lively, and packed with reading, reasoning, and collaboration.

    5. Use Khan Academy ELA for stations, small groups, and independent work.

    Khan Academy ELA fits smoothly into:

    • Small-group instruction
    • Independent practice
    • Reading workshop rotations
    • Intervention blocks
    • Homework or enrichment
    • Early-finisher activities

    Because lessons are bite-sized, skill-focused, and engaging, you can use them flexibly—wherever your classroom needs them most.

    Tell us how you’re using Khan Academy ELA!

    Teachers are endlessly creative—we love seeing how you adapt tools for your classrooms. Share your ideas with us at social@khanacademy.org. You might inspire a future blog post!

    Thanks for everything you do to help students grow as readers and writers. 💙

    Explore all free ELA courses

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    Katie Roberts

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  • From Chat to Classroom: Explore Khan Academy’s Math Questions in ChatGPT

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    Big news: Khan Academy questions are now available in ChatGPT

    We know lesson prep can take hours—and that you’re always looking for ways to give that time back to your students. Now there’s an easier way to plan, with AI tools you already use.

    Khan Academy is becoming one of the first education apps in ChatGPT. Starting with Khan Academy’s math question bank, the app will allow you to access this content directly inside ChatGPT. That means classroom-ready, standards-aligned math questions—pulled straight from our vetted exercise library—are available right where you’re already working.

    This update helps you save time, teach with confidence, and stay grounded in trusted content you’ve relied on for years.

    What’s new—and why it matters

    We started with math because it’s what Khan Academy is best known for. Our math content has supported millions of classrooms for years, helping students build deep understanding.

    Each question comes from our high-quality, standards-aligned exercise bank, covering everything from early math to high school and beyond.

    Here’s what that means for your classroom:

    • Trusted content from Khan Academy, now available in ChatGPT
    • Standards-aligned exercises that are ready to use
    • Direct assignment links to your free Khan Academy classroom
    • Deeper insights when you connect back to student progress within Khan Academy

    We’re beginning here, but our goal is to expand this experience to more subject areas in the future, so you can bring trusted Khan Academy content into even more parts of your day. 

    Getting started (it’s super simple)

    Say you’re planning an algebra lesson for your 9th graders. To access the app in ChatGPT, just open ChatGPT and type something like:

    “Khan Academy, generate five 9th-grade algebra questions for me, focusing on simplifying expressions.”

    When you start your prompt with Khan Academy (in bold), ChatGPT will suggest the Khan Academy app. Tap it, and you’ll instantly get:

    • A set of vetted, high-quality questions
    • Clear formatting (great for algebra, geometry, and trigonometry)
    • A link to assign the set in Khan Academy for progress tracking

    You can adjust the number of questions, specify state standards, or tweak the grade level. And if you need the answers? Just ask!

    Using an enterprise account or edu plan? Make sure your tech director or plan administrator enables the Khan Academy app & connector within settings for all users.

    Using an enterprise account or edu plan? Make sure your tech director or plan administrator enables the Khan Academy app & connector within settings for all users.

    Note: Within ChatGPT, you can also visit Settings > Apps & Connectors to enable the Khan Academy app. Learn more about apps and their admin controls here.

    Designed with teachers in mind

    You’re already juggling grading, planning, and supporting your students every day. You don’t need another tool—you need fewer clicks and better content. This brings Khan Academy right into ChatGPT, fitting naturally into the way you already teach.

    We know many teachers are using ChatGPT to plan lessons and create resources, so we wanted to meet you there. Now you can:

    • Save time with instant, classroom-ready question sets
    • Skip the guesswork and trust vetted content from the start
    • Assign with confidence using familiar teacher tools
    • Go deeper with insights when you link back to Khan Academy

    We’re working with ChatGPT to build support for real classrooms—not just new tech for the sake of it.

    “Teachers are already power users of ChatGPT. Bringing Khan Academy content directly into those conversations ensures [that] trusted resources appear right when educators need them. We share a vision with Khan Academy to support teachers in the flow of their work, and we’re proud to build toward that future together.” — Leah Belsky, VP of Education at OpenAI

    Quick tips to get the most out of it

    • Be specific in your prompt. Start your prompt with Khan Academy (in bold), then include topic, grade level, and even standards if you want.
    • Review the set before assigning. You can copy, edit, or send it straight to Khan Academy.
    • Use it however you need to. Exit tickets? Homework? Group practice? It’s flexible.
    • Assign via Khan Academy if you want to track progress, get insights, or save for later (just login or sign up).

    Note: If you’re using an enterprise or edu plan, your plan administrator must enable the Khan Academy app & connector first.

    We’re excited to share this with you

    We’re thrilled to bring Khan Academy’s trusted content into ChatGPT. We hope it makes your day a little easier, your planning a little faster, and your teaching even more impactful.

    Thanks for everything you do!

    Check out the app

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Khan Academy Science in Action

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    This fall, the Khan Academy Science team traveled to Minneapolis to join thousands of educators at the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Conference to celebrate what science learning looks like when students engage with real-world phenomena through hands-on, inquiry-driven experiences.

    If you weren’t able to attend NSTA, you can still bring that same spirit of science in action to your classroom. The middle and high school hands-on science activities we shared at the conference are available for free and designed to be classroom-ready using accessible materials and flexible-lesson structures that fit a range of instructional settings.

    👉 Explore hands-on science activities.

    Bringing three-dimensional science learning to life

    At NSTA, we hosted interactive workshops focused on our middle and high school hands-on science activities. These sessions introduced teachers to the depth and breadth of Khan Academy’s science offerings. They also highlighted how our content supports three-dimensional learning, integrating science knowledge, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts to build deep understanding.

    Teachers explored investigations across biology, chemistry, and physics, all centered on engaging phenomena that spark curiosity and invite students to ask questions, analyze data, and develop explanations.

    These same activities are designed to be:

    • NGSS-aligned
    • Flexible for a single class period or extended units
    • Adaptable to different classroom contexts

    Browse hands-on investigations by subject

    Stepping into student shoes—and back into teacher shoes

    Teachers at NSTA use Khan Academy Hands-on science activities.
    Teachers at NSTA use Khan Academy Hands-on science activities.

    During each workshop, participants stepped into their “student shoes” to experience our hands-on activities firsthand. Using physical materials, they investigated, collaborated, and made sense of phenomena together—just as their students would. 

    Participants then stepped back into their “teacher shoes” to reflect on what they noticed: moments of productive struggle, rich student discussion, and opportunities for deeper sensemaking. Many teachers shared how easy it was to imagine these same investigations coming to life in their own classrooms. 

    You don’t need a conference workshop to try this with your students. Each hands-on activity includes teacher guidance and student-facing materials that support facilitation while leaving room for student thinking to drive the learning.

    Try a hands-on science activity with your class

    From conference energy to classroom practice

    Teachers at NSTA use learn about all of Khan Academy's free science resources.

    The room buzzed with conversation and experimentation. Teachers shared ideas, asked thoughtful questions, and imagined these investigations in their own classrooms. Many left feeling energized and excited to bring phenomenon-centered science learning to their students using Khan Academy’s free resources.

    That same energy doesn’t have to stay at the conference.

    As teachers bring these hands-on investigations into their classrooms, we’re inviting them to share what science in action looks like with their students.

    Share science in action from your classroom

    If you try a Khan Academy hands-on science activity this quarter, you can submit a classroom artifact for a chance to win a $100 gift card as part of our Celebrate Science in Action contest.

    How to enter:

    • Use any Khan Academy hands-on science activity with your students.
    • Post a photo, a reflection, or students’ work on social media.
    • Tag Khan Academy in your post.
    • Use the hashtag #KhanAcademyScience.

    We’re looking for a photo of the science work itself—the results of students investigating, modeling, or making sense of a phenomenon.

    To protect student privacy, submitted photos should show only the artifact, not the students who created it.

    No polished lesson or perfect outcome required—just authentic learning.By sharing what happens in your classroom, you’ll help celebrate hands-on science learning and inspire other teachers to try it too. See giveaway rules here. The giveaway concludes March 31, 2026.

    Try an activity. Submit an artifact. Enter the contest.

    Science comes alive when students do science

    Our time at NSTA reinforced what we deeply believe: science comes alive when learners actively do science. When students investigate real-world phenomena, collaborate with peers, and build explanations based on evidence, they’re not just learning science—they’re doing it.

    Whether you’re just getting started or you’re already experimenting with hands-on learning, we invite you to explore an activity, try it with your students, and share what unfolds.

    Your classroom science story matters—and it could inspire classrooms far beyond your own.

    Get started with hands-on science

    Check out our free hands-on science activities that can be used by anyone, anywhere!

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Making Essay Practice Easier (and Feedback Better) with Writing Coach

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    By Sarah Robertson, Khan Academy’s principal product manager for Language and Literature

    Khan Academy Writing Coach: Making Essay Practice Easier (and Feedback Better)

    Effective writing instruction takes time—a lot of time. Time to find meaningful essay prompts. Time to set up assignments. And time to give quick, actionable feedback that actually helps students revise.

    This winter, we’re introducing several Writing Coach updates designed to make teachers’ lives easier through every stage of the writing process. From a new Essay Assignments Library to smarter, more focused AI feedback, these changes aim to give teachers even more time back with grade-level appropriate, engaging assignment ideas and robust revision support for students.

    A new way to assign essay-writing practice

    Browse essay assignments by grade level (5–12) Filter by subject (ELA or social studies) Choose from different essay types, including persuasive, informational, and literary analysis
    Search by keyword and customize instructions before assigning

    One of the biggest challenges teachers face when it comes to writing instruction isn’t just teaching the skills—it’s finding and preparing the right materials.

    The new Essay Assignments Library in Writing Coach helps solve that problem by giving teachers access to a curated collection of ready-to-assign essay prompts.

    With the library, teachers can:

    • Browse essay assignments by grade level (5–12)
    • Filter by subject (ELA or social studies)
    • Choose from different essay types, including persuasive, informational, and literary analysis
    • Search by keyword and customize instructions before assigning

    Instead of starting from scratch, teachers can assign high-quality essay-writing practice in seconds, freeing up time for instruction and feedback.

    Explore library

    New feedback categories aligned to common writing rubrics

    Redesigned essay-feedback categories better align with standard writing rubrics used in middle and high school classrooms.

    In addition to the new essay library, we’re making improvements to how students receive feedback when they use Writing Coach.

    We’ve recently migrated Writing Coach AI features to Gemini models and have redesigned our essay-feedback categories to better align with standard writing rubrics used in middle and high school classrooms in order to ensure that feedback is more comprehensive, specific, accurate, and aligned to students’ assignments than ever before.

    New feedback categories aligned to common writing rubrics

    • Thesis & Focus
    • Evidence & Reasoning
    • Structure & Organization
    • Language

    These categories replace the previous set and are designed to help students focus on the most important writing skills at each stage of revision.

    What each category supports

    • Thesis & Focus: evaluates the essay’s purpose, main claim or idea, and overall cohesion
    • Evidence & Reasoning: provides targeted feedback on selecting, integrating, and analyzing evidence
    • Structure & Organization: helps students improve logical flow, paragraph structure, and transitions
    • Language: expands beyond style and tone to address clarity, vocabulary, and sentence structure.

    Together, these categories encourage deeper thinking and a clearer revision process.

    Khanmigo's feedback checklist

    Coming soon

    A more guided essay-revision experience

    We’re also redesigning how students interact with feedback in Writing Coach.

    Instead of receiving all feedback at once, students will be able to move through revisions one category at a time and be able to review one suggestion at a time. They will begin with Thesis & Focus and move forward only after completing each stage.

    This guided approach will:

    • Reduce cognitive overload
    • Keep feedback up to date as drafts change
    • Encourage more students to actually revise

    Our goal is for revisions to feel less like a marked-up paper and more like a one-on-one writing conference.

    Built-in checks and multiple rounds of feedback

    To support meaningful revision, Writing Coach will soon include:

    • A pre-revision completeness check to ensure drafts are ready for feedback
    • The ability for students to request feedback again after revising a category

    We’re also improving feedback earlier in the process, such as during the outlining phase, so students can receive more precise, rigorous guidance before they even begin drafting.

    Assign writing practice now

    With the new Essay Assignments Library and a smarter, more focused feedback experience, Writing Coach is becoming a stronger tool for writing instruction, helping teachers save time and helping students grow as confident, capable writers.

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    Jess Heitner

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  • What a Randomized Control Trial in Uttar Pradesh, India, Teaches Us About Improving Math Learning with Khan Academy

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    Deepak Agarwal, Principal Scientist, Khan Academy India

    India has made remarkable progress in getting children into school. But learning outcomes—especially in mathematics—remain a challenge. Many students move from grade to grade without mastering foundational concepts, and the gaps keep widening over time.

    Over the past few years, education technology has emerged as a potential solution, but evidence from schools across India and globally shows that its impact depends heavily on how it is used. 

    A randomized controlled trial (RCT) led by University of Toronto researcher Philip Oreopoulos shows that when Khan Academy’s technology-based learning platform is implemented as intended, students learn significantly more than otherwise comparable students.

    What is a randomized controlled trial (RCT)?

    A randomized controlled trial is the most rigorous way to answer the key question: Did this program cause an increase in student learning or would the same thing have happened anyway? Imagine you want to test whether a new math program causes students to learn more. You take a group of schools that are broadly similar—same grades, similar backgrounds, same syllabus—and then randomly assign some schools to implement the program. These schools are called “Treatment” schools. Other schools continue with business as usual and are called “Control” schools. The program is implemented in the Treatment schools during the school year and also within the school’s timetable. If at the end of the program, on average, students in the Treatment schools outperform students in the Control schools, the difference can be attributed to the program.

    The intervention: Regular use of Khan Academy for math practice, with the support of lab in-charges

    In partnership with the Uttar Pradesh Department of Social Welfare, Khan Academy was implemented in 74 residential schools for students in Grades 6–8. Classroom teaching continued as usual in all schools. Khan Academy was used as a supplement to support practice, not to replace instruction. Twice a week in the computer lab, teachers and students were recommended to use Khan Academy for lesson-aligned practice and remediation using syllabus-matched exercises and videos. Students used individual devices (computers or tablets) for independent practice in online mode during designated timetable slots and under teacher supervision. This allowed for personalized pace and progression.

    “Khan Academy was used as a supplement to support practice, not to replace instruction.”

    Out of the 74 total schools in the study, 24 schools were randomly selected to be part of the Treatment group, and the remaining 50 schools made up the Control group. The schools in the Treatment group received additional implementation support in the form of non-instructional facilitators who visited treatment schools twice a week, referred to in this study as lab in-charges. Their responsibilities were to ensure two Khan Academy sessions per week, troubleshoot technical- and program-related challenges, monitor student progress data, and work with school leadership to integrate Khan Academy practice into mandatory curriculum time. The Control schools had access to Khan Academy, but the Khan Academy program was not actively promoted in the Control schools during the intervention period. 

    Over the course of seven months, the study included approximately 2,000 students in the Treatment condition and 3,500 students in the Control condition. Students’ learning outcomes were measured through baseline and endline mathematics assessments administered to students in grades 6-8. An independent assessment agency developed grade-specific tests aligned with both CBSE and UP Board curricula and administered in Hindi.

    “The schools in the Treatment group received additional implementation support in the form of non-instructional facilitators who visited treatment schools twice a week, referred to in this study as lab in-charges.”

    Clear evidence of learning gains

    Students in Treatment schools scored 0.44 to 0.47 standard deviations higher than students in the control group on the end-of-year mathematics assessment. To contextualize these magnitudes, a 0.44 to 0.47 standard deviation gain represents moving an average student from the 50th percentile to approximately the 67th or 68th percentile.

    Why did students learn more? Because they practiced more. Students in the Treatment group used Khan Academy for an average of ~47 minutes per week to practice math content that was closely integrated with the classroom curriculum. When there is clear ownership, monitoring, and motivation to use the program, usage increases. Many edtech platforms do not see students achieving meaningful levels of practice time. This study shows one means to achieve that.

    More practice led to more learning—even 15 minutes per week made a difference

    During the study, students in the Treatment group used Khan Academy twice per week for an average of 47 minutes, but the amount of time they spent was not uniform across the board. Some students used Khan Academy more while others used it less. We analyzed this variation in time spent by each student and correlated it with the associated learning gains (see figure below). This analysis shows that even 15 minutes of usage each week can help students make considerable progress. What’s more, learning gains are proportional to the amount of time students spend practicing on the platform. In other words, more practice means more learning.

    Learning gains were consistent across grades and genders, as well as for students at different starting points

    Another highly important and desirable feature of Khan Academy implementation is that its benefits were not limited to a small subset of students. Learning gains for the Treatment group were consistent across grades, genders, and performance levels, indicating that students of all backgrounds and ability levels can benefit from using the Khan Academy (see figure below). 

    What this means

    This randomized controlled trial shows that when there is support for implementation, students can reach desired levels of usage and realize significant learning gains. Digital learning tools can deliver large gains when schools are given enough support to use them efficiently—even in challenging real-world settings.

    When thoughtful structures are put in place to ensure regular practice and logistical challenges are addressed, it creates an environment in which technology usage translates to improved skill mastery and ultimately results in test-score gains. In such a setting, students engage more deeply with their studies and learn more effectively. The technology becomes a vehicle for activating the processes necessary for facilitating deep learning.

    “This randomized controlled trial demonstrates that, with adequate implementation support, students can achieve target levels of dosage and realize significant learning gains.”

    Khan Academy supported such an intervention by providing mastery-based, curriculum-aligned practice in Hindi, enabling students to learn at their own pace while giving teachers and lab in-charges visibility into student progress. The combination of content delivered in their native language, regular practice time, sustained engagement, and efficient practice time successfully converted platform access into meaningful skill development. The results demonstrate that when digital learning tools are thoughtfully integrated into the curriculum, they can deliver large and equitable gains. 

    **

    Read Dr. Oreopoulous’ working paper with the findings here. 

    1 Standard deviation is a common way researchers compare learning gains across different tests and settings. It measures how much scores shift relative to the typical spread of student performance. Reporting results in standard deviation units allows learning gains to be compared across studies, even when assessments differ.

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    Katie Roberts

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  • YouTube adds more parental controls, including a way to block teens from watching Shorts

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    YouTube is rolling out some additional parental controls, including a way to set time limits for viewing Shorts on teen accounts. In the near future, parents and guardians will be able to set the Shorts timer to zero on supervised accounts. “This is an industry-first feature that puts parents firmly in control of the amount of short-form content their kids watch,” Jennifer Flannery O’Connor, YouTube’s vice president of product management, wrote in a blog post. Along with that, take-a-break and bedtime reminders are now enabled by default for users aged 13-17.

    The platform is also bringing in new principles, under which it will recommend more age-appropriate and “enriching” videos to teens. For instance, YouTube will suggest videos from the likes of Khan Academy, CrashCourse and TED-Ed to them more often. It said it developed these principles (and a guide for creators to make teen-friendly videos) with help from its youth advisory committee, the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA, the American Psychological Association, the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and other organizations.

    Moreover, an updated sign-up process for kid accounts will be available in the coming weeks. Kid accounts are tied to parental ones, and don’t have their own associated email address or a password. YouTube says users will be able to switch between accounts in the mobile app with just a few taps. “This makes it easier to ensure that everyone in the family is in the right viewing experience with the content settings and recommendations of age-appropriate content they actually want to watch,” O’Connor wrote.

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    Kris Holt

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  • Update Your Syllabus: We Now Have a Real-World Money Video for Every Unit

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    Khan Academy is excited to announce a major update to our Financial Literacy course, making it more comprehensive, classroom-ready, and aligned with the real-world money skills students need today. With brand-new lessons across every unit and eight newly added Teacher Resource lessons, this expanded course equips educators with the tools needed to explore and explain today’s financial landscape with clarity, confidence, and practical relevance.

    Teach real-world financial skills students can use right away 

    Today’s learners need more than definitions and textbook examples. They need financial knowledge they can apply to their daily lives. Our updated financial literacy curriculum introduces students to practical, essential topics such as:

    • How to file taxes
    • Understanding unemployment
    • Using digital payment apps (Venmo, Cash App, and others)
    • Building credit and managing debt
    • Understanding the basics of investing and saving for retirement

    These lessons help students connect financial concepts to real decisions they will face, preparing them not just for a test, but also for life beyond the classroom.

    Try this in your next class: Assign “The Menu of Opportunities” from the Careers and Education unit. This short, real-world video helps students compare different paths after high school and opens the door to a rich discussion about their goals and future plans.

    Assign from your dashboard

    Modern financial topics that spark meaningful classroom discussions

    The revised course covers timely issues that reflect the financial challenges and choices students encounter today. Lessons include:

    • Debt management and responsible borrowing
    • How to read and understand insurance contracts
    • Long-term financial planning
    • Evaluating risks and rewards in major financial decisions

    Presented using accessible, real-world scenarios, these topics make the course an ideal foundation for classroom conversations about money, financial responsibility, and building a secure future. Whether you teach middle school, high school, or you support students transitioning into adulthood, this updated content is both relevant and essential.

    Comprehensive teacher resources for every unit

    To make teaching financial literacy easier than ever, we’ve added eight new Teacher Resource lessons, meaning every unit now includes built-in instructional support. These resources include:

    • Real-world financial videos
    • Classroom activities and discussion prompts
    • Facilitation tips for guiding complex conversations
    • Practical examples that help students connect concepts to lived experiences

    Whether you’re a veteran financial literacy teacher or you’re introducing these concepts for the first time, these tools will help you teach money skills with confidence and purpose.

    Teach financial literacy with confidence

    Check out the revised Financial Literacy course today and help your students build a strong foundation for their financial future—one lesson at a time.

    Get started

    These videos are made possible by Intuit for Education, helping students develop essential financial skills that will last a lifetime.

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    Katie Roberts

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  • Exploring How to Improve Assessment with AI

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    By Kristen DiCerbo, Ph.D., Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy

    Can AI help us improve assessment? Can it give us a better understanding of what students know and can do? Classroom assessment generally comes in two forms: teacher generated assessments meant for the teacher and student and large scale assessment where students are taking the same assessment as other students in the school, district, state, and/or country and results are shared widely.  In general these large scale assessments have been limited in the types of questions that can be asked, in part because the responses are automatically scored. As a result, many feel that large-scale assessments are not able to measure the skills and knowledge that students actually have or that are important. 

    Generative AI opens new ways to design assessments that better reflect what we actually want students to learn and do. There are two specific areas that generative AI might help with: new kinds of assessment activity and new kinds of scoring. 

    Exploring a new kind of assessment activity

    Since last January, we have been piloting a feature called Explain Your Thinking with select pilot schools. This feature is meant to mimic the conversations that teachers have with students about their work. They might sit with a student and say things like, “Tell me why you did that step next,” or “What does that answer tell you about the problem?” Our Explain Your Thinking similarly asks students to first answer a traditional question and then engage in a conversation with the AI about their answer. We use prompting behind the scenes to guide the AI to ask questions that get at particular conceptual ideas. 

    Generative AI opens new ways to design assessments that better reflect what we actually want students to learn and do.

    In our research, we examined both whether the conversation gave new information and whether the generative AI was an accurate scorer of the conversations. We looked at 220 conversations in algebra and 296 conversations in geometry. We asked whether the conversation revealed more about the students’ understanding than the students’ first responses did. In other words, did we get more understanding of what the student knows from a conversation than we would have from a single open-ended response? About 20.0% of students for the algebra item and 36.1% for the geometry item did not demonstrate understanding initially but did so by the end of their conversation with the AI. That is a substantial number of students who demonstrated more understanding in the conversational setting. We are heartened to see these preliminary results and are eager to further explore how questioning students about their thinking leads them to reveal more about their understanding.

    Each conversation has criteria which can be scored as correct or incorrect. We built an AI scorer to judge after each turn whether the criteria had been met or not, and then to give a score at the end of the conversation. The AI scorer demonstrated good alignment with human raters at both the turn and conversation levels. The AI scorer demonstrated good alignment with human raters at both the turn and conversation levels. Read more about this work in the paper Measuring Student Understanding via Multi-Turn AI Conversations, led by principal psychometrician Jing Chen. 

    Of course in order to make the feature Explain Your Thinking  work in an assessment scenario, the AI can’t give away the answer or even hints during the conversation. We know that many of the AI models want to be helpful so we had to test new ways to ensure it wouldn’t provide help to students. One way to do this is by setting up a system where we prompt the AI to self-critique the response from the AI before it is shown to the test-taker. To test this idea, we found 176 conversations in a group of 597 test cases where the AI was likely to try to give a hint. We then ran versions of the AI with and without self-critique to see how often they would give a hint. Self-critique dramatically reduced the rate of inappropriate hints from 65.9% to 6.1%. Remember, this isn’t a random sample of conversations, but conversations in which the AI is very likely to give a hint, so the actual percentage of time the AI would give a hint with self-critique would actually be lower than 6%. You can read the details in the paper Beyond the Hint by prompt engineers Tyler Burleigh and Jenny Han, and me.

    Exploring a new kind of scoring

    In order to make these conversational assessments, we need to write both the item prompts and the criteria by which to score them. We then need to test these and, if they are not reliable, revise them and test again. If we have to test every item with students, you can imagine that this process would take months to years to create one assessment. In order to cut that down, and make sure we are only testing with real students when we think we have good items, we experimented with a system that uses AI to generate 150 synthetic responses to an item so it can be tested and revised before piloting. Using this tool, we can run many iterations, and in particular make sure the criteria used for grading are able to result in reliable scores. We authored 17 items with the tool, and they collectively resulted in 68 iteration cycles. Before iteration, only 59% of the items could be scored reliably, but with the tool, all 17 met the criteria for reliable scoring, and this was accomplished over days not years. Read more about the tool in the paper Pre-Pilot Optimization of Conversation-Based Assessment Items Using  Synthetic Response Data by senior prompt engineer Tyler Burleigh, principal psychometrician Jing Chen, and me. 

    If we do decide to use generative AI for scoring, there are a LOT of considerations before we do so. We drafted a framework of all the things we need to think about: Measurement Purpose, System Design, Model Selection, Item Development, Pilot and Live Testing, and Risk Mitigation. You can read more about this in A Framework for Live Scoring Constructed Response  Items with Commercial LLMs by senior psychometrician Scott Frohn, assessments director Lauren Deters, senior prompt engineer Tyler Burleigh, and me. 

    If we do decide to use generative AI for scoring, there are a LOT of considerations before we do so.

    We look forward to continuing to conduct careful research on the possibilities of generative AI to enhance assessment and give us a richer picture of what students know and can do.

    Onward!

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  • What is LearnStorm? Teachers and Kids Share Why They Love This Classroom Tool

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    LearnStorm is Khan Academy’s free, fun, and engaging classroom tool that celebrates student progress and keeps learning joyful all year long.

    By mid-semester, many teachers are looking for ways to re-energize their classrooms. That’s where LearnStorm comes in. With just a few clicks, you can turn daily practice on Khan Academy into a classroom-wide celebration of growth.

    What is LearnStorm?

    LearnStorm is a classroom engagement tracker that motivates students to keep learning. Here’s how it works:

    • Students work on skills you assign or that are part of their mastery goals on Khan Academy.
    • Each time a student levels up, progress is reflected on the LearnStorm tracker.
    • Rings on the tracker grow as the class learns together, unlocking moments of excitement (and yes, even dancing in some classrooms!).

    Because LearnStorm celebrates collective progress, every student’s effort matters. No one is singled out. Everyone contributes to the classroom’s success!

    Students jumping up and down celebrating growing their LearnStorm tracker.

    Why teachers love it

    Teachers tell us LearnStorm makes their classrooms more motivated, focused, and joyful.

    LearnStorm is built with teachers in mind:

    • Simple to start: Create a class, add students, and assign skills in minutes.
    • Proven impact: Even mastering just one more skill than the year before leads to measurable learning gains.
    • Reliable and free: No cost, no hidden fees—just a tool that works consistently in your classroom.

    Quote from teacher, "The absolute joy these kids had celebrating their learning was awesome today. It will certainly continue to be a motivator as we move throughout the year!"

    Why students love it

    Students love LearnStorm because it makes their learning visible and fun.

    • Colorful tracker: They can see their progress come to life with growing rings. 
    • Fun celebrations: Cheering, dancing, and classroom rewards make learning exciting.
    • Team spirit: Every student’s effort contributes to the class goal—no one is left out.
    • Motivation to keep going: Progress feels rewarding, which keeps students engaged.

    Quote from student, "LearnStorm really made me realize how much you can grow in a short amount of time."

    How to use LearnStorm in your classroom

    LearnStorm is flexible and fits into many classroom routines:

    • Daily warm-ups: Kick off class by celebrating progress.
    • Independent practice: Let students track mastery during quiet work time.
    • Homework motivation: Show how outside effort contributes to class rings.
    • Friday celebrations: Open the tracker together and cheer on your class’s growth.

    Get started today

    Ready to bring LearnStorm to your students?

    1. Log in to your Teacher Dashboard.
    2. Create or open your class.
    3. Click the LearnStorm tab and watch the magic happen!

    Celebrate progress. Build community. Keep learning joyful. That’s LearnStorm.

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Big News for Teachers Getting Students Ready for the W!SE Test

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    If your students take the W!SE (Working In Support of Education) Financial Literacy Certification exam you now have a clear, reliable path forward.

    W!SE has officially named Khan Academy’s Financial Literacy course as a top prep resource for the W!SE exam. That means you have one trusted, free, all-in-one tool to support your students in building money skills and earning certification.

    One course covers it all 

    You no longer need to dig through many resources to assemble what students need for W!SE exam. Khan Academy’s course includes:

    • Budgeting and saving
    • Credit and debt
    • Taxes and insurance
    • Banking, investing, core economics
    • Practice challenges that mirror the W!SE exam’s format

    Plus, since the course launched, Khan Academy has expanded it to include new units on employment, banking, car buying, and housing to help students understand real-life money decisions. 

    Assign the course today!

    A Note for Virginia Teachers

    If you are a Virginia teacher, Khan Academy also offers the Economics and Personal Finance course, which was built specifically to align with Virginia’s state standards. This course includes both economics and personal finance content, ensuring that you can meet all of the state’s instructional requirements.

    Much of the personal finance material in this course overlaps with the Financial Literacy course, so students still get exposure to the same core lessons that prepare them for the W!SE financial literacy exam. However, the Financial Literacy course remains the best targeted exam preparation resource, while the Economics and Personal Finance course ensures full compliance with Virginia’s curriculum standards.

    This Virginia-specific course was made possible through the support of Capital One.

    You’re already doing the work. We’re just making it easier.

    You know how important financial literacy is. With Khan Academy’s fully aligned course—and W!SE’s recommendation—you now have a powerful way to teach the skills that matter most.

    Thank you for everything you do in helping students build financial confidence. You have a tool in Khan Academy that works for real classrooms.

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    Katie Roberts

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  • Need-to-Know BTS 2025: AI-Powered Support, Classroom-Ready Updates, and District Features

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    What new for back-to-school season 2025

    Need-to-Know is our quarterly collection of product releases, new content and courses, and improvements made to functionality—everything you need to know in one place!

    Updates and releases as part of your free Khan Academy account

    Updates and releases as part of your free Khan Academy account

    Get Khanmigo-certified

    Kick off the year AI-ready with our free certification course—practical, bite-sized PD that shows you how to integrate Khanmigo into real classroom moments.

    Download your back-to-school checklist

    Stay organized with our ready-to-use checklist of resources and tools for a smooth start.

    Smarter writing support with Writing Coach

    Give students scaffolded feedback across the writing process while keeping teacher control—these short videos get you classroom-ready fast.

    From AI-powered Blooket integration to flexible essay feedback, assignment previews, and easy exports to Google, our latest Khanmigo updates make teaching more seamless and efficient.

    Help families stay engaged with the new Parent Dashboard

    Encourage families to keep the learning going at home with Khan Academy’s new Parent Dashboard. Parents can easily track progress, assign practice, and support their child’s growth beyond the classroom.

    Hear from teachers and parents

    New and updated content to assign to your class

    New and updated content to assign to your class

    Support financial literacy in the classroom

    Financial Literacy

    Help students build real-world money skills with Khan Academy’s Financial Literacy course. With short, engaging videos and practice on topics like credit scores, saving for retirement, and tax forms, students gain confidence with concepts that matter beyond school. Use it flexibly for advisory, life-skills classes, or enrichment.

    Keep students on track for AP exams

    AP Exam Preparation

    Our updated AP Physics 1, AP U.S. History, and AP U.S. Government & Politics courses feature refreshed lessons, strategy tips, and exam-style practice that align with College Board standards. Teachers can assign practice sets, FRQ strategies, and new articles to help students feel prepared and confident on test day.

    Strengthen reading & vocabulary in upper elementary

    Grades 4 & 5 Reading and Vocabulary

    Our redesigned 4th– and 5th-grade ELA courses combine short, high-interest texts with standards-aligned comprehension and vocabulary practice. Students build stamina with long-passage assignments, practice key strategies with videos, and grow their vocabulary through morphology-based instruction—perfect for whole-class lessons, small groups, or independent practice.

    Build conceptual understanding in math

    Grades 3-5 Illustrative Math

    Aligned with the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum, our updated 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-grade math courses emphasize conceptual understanding with visual models, scaffolded hints, and real-world examples. Teachers can easily integrate them into core instruction, intervention, or homework while meeting diverse student needs.

    Give students a strong start in SAT prep

    SAT Prep

    Our “Get Ready for SAT Prep” courses in Reading & Writing and Math are designed for 9th and 10th graders or students scoring below 500 on the PSAT/SAT. These pre-prep resources build foundational literacy and math skills with scaffolded practice and strategy tips, preparing students to transition smoothly into full SAT prep.

    Explore middle school science with NGSS-aligned courses

    Middle School Physics & Chemistry

    Our updated Physics and new Chemistry courses help students explore motion, atoms, and reactions through NGSS-aligned lessons. With engaging videos, practice, and real-world examples, these resources are great for blended learning, independent study, or classroom reinforcement.

    Teach real-world coding with Python

    Intro to Computer Science – Python

    Our complete Intro to Python course is classroom-ready, with auto-graded challenges, scaffolded feedback, and real-world projects, from building recommendation engines to modeling disease spread. Students practice core concepts like loops, functions, and data structures while developing problem-solving skills. No setup required—just open and start coding.

    Sharing the love for new courses

    Latest features and resources for partner districts

    Latest features and resources for partner districts

    LMS integration made easy

    If your district uses Canvas, Google Classroom, or Schoology, Khan Academy now syncs directly through Clever LMS Connect. Assign work in Khan Academy and students can access it through your LMS while you and your admins get real-time progress data.

    Seamless classroom transfers

    When staff transitions happen, classrooms can now be transferred from one teacher to another automatically via nightly rostering—no setup required on your end.

    See district goals in your dashboard

    Teachers can now view the goals set by instructional leaders—like student proficiency, Khanmigo usage, or learning minutes—right alongside their own class data.

    Administrators now have access to Khanmigo tools for writing SMART goals, drafting IEPs, creating newsletters, and tracking performance—freeing up time and ensuring alignment across your district.

    Unit mastery goals set by admins

    Admins can now assign unit-level mastery goals to groups of classes, helping keep students on track while reducing the burden on teachers.

    Khanmigo in more languages

    Khanmigo is now available in beta in Arabic, Chinese (simplified & traditional), Russian, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese—along with English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hindi—to better support multilingual learners and families.

    New image input for tutoring

    Students can upload diagrams, handwritten work, or screenshots of math and science problems (with a typed question) in “Tutor Me” mode for more personalized Khanmigo tutoring support.

    Coming soon: Admin class access

    Admins will soon be able to enter classrooms as co-teachers without SIS changes, giving them better visibility into student activity and more ways to support teachers.

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Back to School with Khan Academy: Free NGSS Science Unit Guides for Teachers

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    Start the year strong with NGSS-aligned science resources

    Kick off the school year with confidence using Khan Academy’s NGSS Science Unit Guides—designed to make lesson planning easier and instruction more effective. Aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), these guides complement Khan Academy’s free courses in biology, chemistry, and physics, helping you deliver cohesive, inquiry-driven learning experiences that truly resonate with students.

    Whether you’re a new teacher or a veteran educator, these unit guides give you everything you need to start the year prepared and stay on track throughout each unit.

    What’s inside the NGSS Unit Guides?

    Each unit guide is built to support both teacher and student success. Inside you’ll find:

    • Lesson overviews – Quick snapshots of what’s covered, saving you valuable prep time
    • Essential questions – Open-ended prompts designed to promote deep student thinking and classroom discussion
    • Learning objectives – Clear, focused goals that break down NGSS standards into teachable steps
    • Teaching tips & strategies – Expert advice for keeping lessons engaging, interactive, and accessible for all learners
    • Integrated Khan Academy resources – Plug-and-play videos, articles, and exercises to enrich your lessons without extra prep

    Why teachers love these NGSS Unit Guides

    What sets these guides apart is their emphasis on real-world relevance. Each unit is anchored by real-world phenomena, from environmental issues to everyday applications of science, that spark curiosity and help students see why science matters.

    To further support effective teaching, the guides include:

    • Strategies for addressing common misconceptions so students don’t get stuck on tricky concepts
    • Student-friendly resources like simulations, hands-on activities, and note-taking templates to encourage active learning
    • Flexible teaching supports that allow you to adapt for whole-class instruction, small groups, or independent learning

    These guides aren’t just lesson aids—they’re a teaching toolkit that helps you foster inquiry, critical thinking, and a genuine love of science in your classroom.

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    Katie Roberts

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  • Finally! A Khan Academy Course Just for Parents (and It’s Free!)

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    You’re not alone, parenting and learning can be tough

    Whether you’re helping your child with homework, teaching them at home, or just trying to keep up with what they’re learning in school, it can feel overwhelming.

    That’s why Khan Academy created something brand-new—for the first time ever, just for families. The Khan for Parents course is a free, friendly way to learn how to support your child’s learning. And no, you don’t need to be a teacher or tech expert. Whether you’re a parent, guardian, grandparent, or caregiver—this course is for you.

    See how Khan for Parents can help you

    This quick video shows how the Khan for Parents course can help you support your child’s learning journey.

    Why take the Khan for Parents course?

    You care about your child’s education, but maybe you’ve asked:

    • “How can I actually help them at home?”
    • “What’s Khan Academy all about, anyway?”
    • “Is there an easy way to get started?”

    This course answers all that (and more) in three quick, helpful units. It’s designed to meet you where you are—whether you’re brand-new to Khan Academy or a long-time user who wants to dive deeper.

    Star the course today

    What you’ll learn: The three units of the course

    Unit 1: Welcome to Khan Academy

    In this unit, you’ll discover:

    • How to set up your account as a parent
    • What mastery learning means and how it benefits your child
    • How AI tools like Khanmigo are helping parents support their learners

    Start with Unit 1 to build confidence from the very beginning

    Unit 2: Ways to Use Khan Academy

    Now that you know what Khan Academy is, this unit walks you through:

    • How to use Khan Academy, whether you’re supporting a homeschooler or an in-school learner
    • How to explore lessons, assign content, and track progress
    • How to help your child when they get stuck or need extra encouragement

    Go to Unit 2 to explore lessons, assign content, and track progress.

    Unit 3: Learning Khanmigo

    This unit is where things get exciting! You’ll explore:

    • How to use Khanmigo’s Parent tools
    • What Khanmigo offers learners—like tutoring, explanations, and writing help
    • How to use Khanmigo inside a course to boost engagement and confidence

    Jump into Unit 3 and learn how to use Khanmigo to boost your child’s confidence.

    How to get started in three easy steps

    1. Visit Khan Academy and choose “Parent” when signing up or logging in.
    2. Click on the “Khan for Parents” course.
    3. Start learning! Each unit is short, helpful, and built with YOU in mind.

    You don’t need to figure it all out alone.

    Take the free Khan for Parents course today, watch the quick video above, and see how easy it is to support your child’s learning—at home, on the go, or anywhere in between.

    Get started today!

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    Katie Roberts

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  • Start the Year Strong: Writing Coach PL Series for Teachers

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    Back-to-school season is the perfect time to reset your writing instruction routines—and we’re here to support you with a quick and flexible professional learning series focused on Khan Academy Writing Coach.

    Writing Coach, powered by Khanmigo, is a free tool designed to help students grow as writers and give teachers powerful support—without adding to your workload. This four-part video series includes short sessions you can watch on your own time. By the end, you’ll be ready to confidently integrate Writing Coach into your classroom and even share what you’ve learned with fellow teachers.

    Chapter 1: Empowering student writers in the age of AI

    Great writing starts with great guidance, and that comes from you. In this session, we explore how Writing Coach supports authentic writing development with step-by-step guidance, not shortcuts. You’ll learn:

    • Why we built Writing Coach with ethical AI use at its core
    • How it supports writing instruction—not replaces it
    • What makes it uniquely aligned with Khan Academy’s mission to provide a free, world-class education for every student

    Chapter 2: Assigning writing practice—your way

    Assigning daily writing practice can feel overwhelming—especially when the National Commission on Writing recommends 60 minutes a day. Writing Coach helps you scale writing in a way that’s realistic and teacher-friendly.

    In this chapter, you’ll learn how to:

    • Create and manage writing assignments in just a few clicks
    • Customize prompts to fit your curriculum and voice
    • Stay in control of the writing process while students get the support they need

    Chapter 3: Building student confidence from day one

    If your students often say, “I don’t know where to start!” then you’re not alone. Writing Coach gives students the structure and encouragement they need to take the first step and keep going.

    This session walks through the student experience with Writing Coach, highlighting how it helps learners:

    • Brainstorm ideas and understand expectations
    • Draft independently with real-time feedback
    • Revise effectively—without relying on copy-paste solutions

    Chapter 4: Using teacher reports to guide instruction

    Great teachers know that meaningful feedback drives growth, but it can be hard to find the time to monitor every student’s writing journey. Writing Coach provides real-time insights to help you teach smarter, not harder.

    In this final chapter, learn how to:

    • View student progress at a glance
    • Get alerts on originality issues
    • Identify class-wide trends to inform your next lesson

    You’re ready. Now bring it to your classroom.

    You’ve explored how Writing Coach supports student growth, aligns with your instruction, and gives you powerful data—all while keeping you in the driver’s seat. Now it’s your turn to try it out, explore with your students, and maybe even share what you’ve learned with a colleague.

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Empower Your Students with Our Python Course for High School Teachers

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    Introducing Khan Academy’s complete Introduction to Computer Science – Python course

    Educators, we’re excited to unveil the newly completed Introduction to Computer Science – Python course from Khan Academy—a rigorous, engaging, and classroom-ready resource built to help students develop real-world programming skills while saving you valuable prep and grading time. Whether you’re teaching a full-year computer science class or you’re integrating coding into a broader curriculum, this course provides the tools you need to get students thinking critically about the digital world around them.

    Auto-graded programming challenges = less work for you

    How much of your time do you spend managing and assessing student work? Khan Academy’s auto-graded programming challenges relieve educators of that burden! As students write code, our platform offers scaffolded, real-time feedback, helping them troubleshoot and learn independently. For teachers, sample solutions are just a click away, making it easy to support student learning with minimal prep.

    With built-in, open-ended extensions and bonus discussion questions, you can encourage deeper thinking and foster creativity in the classroom. Whether students are reflecting on the biases in their algorithm design or they’re thinking about the limitations of their simulation, they’ll encounter tasks that not only build technical fluency but also foster critical thinking skills that matter far beyond the screen.

    Support every learner with modular, thoughtful design

    Each programming challenge is modular and adaptable, allowing you to meet every student at their current skill level. Students who complete their work quickly can move on to suggested extensions, and students who get stuck can refer back to paired worked example videos.

    Students practice core programming concepts like conditionals, loops, and functions while exploring authentic and timely topics like infectious disease modeling and algorithmic bias. Each unit showcases a unique application of programming, from game design to data analysis, designed to capture the interest of a diverse range of students.

    No setup, no barriers—just start coding

    Best of all, your students can start coding from minute one. Our custom, web-based development environment works across laptops, tablets, and mobile devices, and there’s no installation required. Whether students are working in class or at home, they’ll have a smooth, consistent experience that lets them focus on solving problems and writing code instead of troubleshooting tech issues.

    A unique approach to computer science in your classroom

    We designed this course to make programming approachable and fun for students and teachers from all backgrounds. We break down every concept from square one and center all 100+ example programs in real-world problems—no Fibonacci sequences here! Our team based this course off of a decade of experience working at major software companies, so you can feel confident that it reflects the up-to-date, practical skills your students will need.

    Ready to learn more? Watch our guided course tour, or open up the Intro to Computer Science – Python course to explore for yourself!

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Start the School Year Strong with Free TEKS-Aligned Resources from Khan Academy

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    Texas teachers, start the school year equipped with everything you need for success in the classroom! Whether you’re teaching 8th-grade science or Algebra 1, Khan Academy’s TEKS-aligned unit guides are designed to save you time, build your confidence, and deliver exceptional, standards-driven instruction.

    Thanks to the generous support of the ExxonMobil Foundation, these resources are available for free to teachers across Texas.

    TEKS Science unit guides: Engage students with real-world phenomena

    Aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for 8th grade and high school, our science unit guides cover integrated science, biology, chemistry, and physics. They complement Khan Academy’s existing science courses while making it easier to plan cohesive, standards-based instruction.

    Each guide includes:

    • Lesson overviews: Essential questions paired with clear learning objectives
    • Real-world phenomena: Designed to spark curiosity and make content come alive
    • Targeted teaching tips: Practical strategies for addressing common misconceptions
    • Student-ready resources: Simulations, note-taking templates, and other classroom supports

    Explore TEKS science guides

    TEKS Math unit guides: Built by experts, backed by strategy

    More than a resource, these guides are like having a master teacher in your corner. Khan Academy’s math unit guides are aligned to TEKS standards for Grades 5–8 and Algebra 1, with additional guides for Grades 3–4, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Precalculus coming soon.

    Inside each guide you’ll find:

    • Standards & misconceptions: Quickly identify what students need to know and where they might struggle
    • Unit resources: Ready-to-use templates for video notes, vocab builders, graphing tools, and more
    • Lesson overviews: Teaching tips, warm-up ideas, and student supports for every lesson
    • Best practices: Instructional strategies and classroom activities to enhance engagement

    Unit guides are already live for Grades 5–8 and Algebra 1—just look for the “Teacher resources” lesson at the end of each unit.

    Explore TEKS math guides

    Teach confidently this year

    These guides are designed to empower you, making every unit easier to teach and more effective for your students. By providing strategies, ready-to-use resources, and expert insights, Khan Academy helps you focus on what matters most—supporting every learner.

    Once again, a special thank you to the ExxonMobil Foundation for making these free resources possible for teachers and students across Texas.

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    Katie Roberts

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  • How a Khan Academy Intern Helped Teachers Find Their AI-Generated Documents Faster

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    At Khan Academy, our summer internships aren’t about coffee runs or sitting on the sidelines. They’re about giving talented students real ownership of projects that help advance our mission of free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. This year, engineering intern Anastasia Dunca spent her summer tackling a challenge that directly supports teachers: making it easier to search and find the documents they’ve created with Khanmigo, our AI-powered teacher assistant.

    We sat down with Anastasia to learn what her internship was like, from the early days of mentor matching to the moment her code earned an official “LGTM” (Looks Good to Me) from her team.

    Q: How did your internship start?

    Before the summer starts, we go through a mentor-matching process where we share our interests and passions with the coordinator team. They match us with a team that will push us and give us a fun, exciting project. Once mentors are matched, laptops arrive, and my home setup is ready—it’s time for onboarding and diving into tasks.

    Q: What project did you work on?

    My project this summer was making teacher documents searchable. Khan Academy has AI tools that let teachers create everything from lesson plans to class poems. These documents are saved so teachers can revisit and reuse them, but we wanted to make them easier to find. My work involved learning backend, OpenAI API, Golang, and more to integrate these documents into our search experience.

    Q: How did you approach building the feature?

    I started with a “naive stage” to get something working quickly—just correct, not perfect. Then I moved to a “precision stage,” improving speed and accuracy. Finally, I worked on iterations to fix bugs and polish the user experience. We tested by running prompts through a tool called the component runner to see if results matched expectations.

    Q: What were some challenges and wins?

    Permissions issues took some troubleshooting, but getting end-to-end search working was a big win. I was excited when the team gave me an “LGTM” on my work.

    Q: How did you wrap up the project?

    We decided to deploy behind a feature flag so a select group could test it without affecting production. I’m finishing my internship still working on that rollout.

    Q: What’s your biggest takeaway from this summer?

    As a Khan Academy intern, I got to apply my own research process to my project, learn new technologies, and truly own my work. I’m so thankful for my supportive team who kept me motivated, and I’m leaving with skills and confidence I didn’t have before.

    Looking ahead

    Anastasia’s summer project is just one example of how interns at Khan Academy make a direct impact on tools that teachers, students, and parents use every day. From learning new coding languages to contributing to real features in development, our interns experience what it’s like to be part of a mission-driven engineering team.

    Want to be a Khan Academy intern?

    Check out our Careers page to learn more about our internship program and future opportunities.

    Explore now

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    Katie Roberts

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  • Build Student Confidence with SAT Reading and Writing Prep

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    Introducing Khan Academy’s new Get Ready for SAT Prep: Reading and Writing course

    Educators, we’re excited to introduce a new tool to help you better support your students’ journey toward SAT success: the Get Ready for SAT Prep: Reading and Writing course. Designed to offer an earlier, more gradual ramp-up to our full SAT Reading and Writing course, this new resource is ideal for 9th- and 10th-grade students or those in need of extra support. Think of it as a pre-prep course that builds students’ confidence and capability well before test day.

    Skill practice that builds from the ground up

    The “Get Ready” course provides students with SAT- and PSAT/NMSQT-style practice questions at a lower difficulty level. This gives students a chance to become more familiar with the test’s format and what they are expected to accomplish while also developing their reading and writing skills in a more accessible, less intimidating way. The lesson content is the same as what appears in the SAT Reading and Writing course, but the practice is targeted at the Pre-Foundations level, making it ideal for remediation or early exposure.

    Flexible for differentiated instruction

    This course also meets the need for remediation resources in high school ELA classrooms. For students in need of extra support, teachers can assign practice aligned to specific reading and writing skills, helping students master the basics before they move on to the more challenging exercises in the SAT Reading and Writing course. With built-in unit tests, course challenges, and mastery tracking, educators can easily assess student readiness to progress to the next level of SAT prep. Once students achieve mastery in a skill through the Get Ready course, they’re prepared to take on that same skill at the Foundations level in the full SAT Reading and Writing course.

    New “top tips” articles in both Get Ready for SAT Prep: Reading and Writing and SAT Reading and Writing courses

    Announcing a new article type! Each lesson will contain a new article detailing our “top tips” for tackling the given skill, along with example questions where students can try out these strategies themselves. This way, students can see how we applied those strategies to get to the correct answer. While the existing “overview” articles walk through the main approach to all questions in the given skill, the “top tips” articles offer secondary strategies that may come in handy on some questions. 

    Support students wherever they are

    Whether you’re supporting early test prep in 9th and 10th grade or you’re providing targeted practice for students working toward proficiency, the Get Ready for SAT Prep: Reading and Writing course offers flexible support. It’s not designed to prepare students directly for the SAT or PSAT/NMSQT. Instead, it prepares them for the preparation, laying the groundwork for long-term success. Explore the course today and help every student build the confidence and skills they need to thrive on the road to college readiness.

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Get Ready for SAT Prep: Math—Your Foundation for Progress

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    Jessica Hendel, Senior Content Creator

    Hi everyone! I’m Jess, and I help create content at Khan Academy. I want to introduce you to our new course called Get Ready for SAT Prep: Math. This course is designed to help you build the basic math skills you’ll need before you start the official Digital SAT Math course.

    This course is especially helpful if you’re in 9th or 10th grade and want to prepare early for the PSAT/NMSQT or SAT. It’s also a good choice if you’ve tried the official SAT Math course and found the Foundations-level material difficult, or if you scored below 500 on a recent PSAT or SAT Math test.

    Get Ready for SAT Prep: Math focuses on making sure you understand the most important math concepts at a Pre-Foundations level. This means the material is a bit easier than what you’ll see on the PSAT/NMSQT or SAT, so you can build your confidence and skills before moving on. Once you feel comfortable with these basics, you’ll be better prepared for the more challenging topics in the Digital SAT Math course.

    You may notice that some skills in this course already show progress toward mastery. That’s because the exercises are also used in other Khan Academy math courses, so any progress you’ve made there will count here too.

    It’s important to know that this course is not meant to be your only SAT prep. Instead, it’s like a warmup to get you ready for the main Digital SAT Math course, which is where you’ll do most of your test preparation. At the end of each skill in the Get Ready course, there’s a quiz you can take to see if you’re ready to move on. If you don’t master the quiz right away, you can watch videos and do more practice exercises for that skill. Once you master a skill, you’re ready to start the Foundations lessons for that skill in the Digital SAT Math course.

    Get Ready for SAT Prep: Math in the classroom

    For teachers and schools, this course offers fantastic flexibility. You can begin implementing it as early as 9th or 10th grade, giving students a longer runway for SAT preparation. It’s also an invaluable resource for helping 11th-grade students who need extra support with specific mathematical concepts before tackling SAT-level content.

    Flexible for differentiated instruction

    This course also meets the need for remediation resources in high school ELA classrooms. For students in need of extra support, teachers can assign practice aligned to specific reading and writing skills, helping students master the basics before they move on to the more challenging exercises in the SAT Reading and Writing course. With built-in unit tests, course challenges, and mastery tracking, educators can easily assess student readiness to progress to the next level of SAT prep. Once students achieve mastery in a skill through the Get Ready course, they’re prepared to take on that same skill at the Foundations level in the full SAT Reading and Writing course.

    Build strong foundations for confident SAT prep

    Whether you’re a student looking to build a strong foundation for future SAT success or an educator seeking to provide targeted support for your students, Get Ready for SAT Prep: Math is designed to meet you where you are and help you get where you need to be.

    Remember, mastering the fundamentals is the key to long-term success. We’re excited to be part of your SAT and PSAT journey!

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    Jess Heitner

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  • Everything You Need for Science Class—Free on Khan Academy

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    Khan Academy science is your free, one-stop-shop for high-quality, standards-aligned content. Whether you’re introducing students to cells for the first time, exploring the ins and outs of chemical reactions, or guiding learners through the complexities of kinematics, you’ll find the right tools to bring science to life in your classroom.

    Here’s what makes our science resources stand out:

    Courses offered

    Khan Academy offers engaging, comprehensive science courses for middle school, high school, and Advanced Placement (AP) levels. They are designed to engage students with high-quality, rigorous content. All courses are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or the College Board Course and Exam Descriptions (CEDs) and incorporate real-world phenomena and science practices.

    Middle school courses introduce core topics in Earth science, life science, and physical science with curiosity and clarity. 

    High school courses build deep understanding through rigorous, interactive content and real-world contexts.

    AP courses mirror the scope and sequence of the College Board curriculum and help students prepare for exam success.

    Each course includes videos, articles, and practice questions that help students master key concepts and skills.

    Image of earth, pollinators, and organisms that students can explore in Khan Academy's science courses.
    With Khan Academy’s science courses, students can explore gravity and Earth systems, electrostatics and pollination, cells and body systems, and so much more.

    Interactive, hands-on learning

    Science is best learned through doing. So at Khan Academy, we go beyond videos and quizzes.

    • Hands-on activities prompt students to explore and investigate science in action with real-world questions and simple materials. Our growing collection of middle and high school activities help students connect what they learn in class to the world around them.
    • Simulations in articles and exercises let students manipulate variables, observe outcomes, and build understanding in interactive ways. Each simulation is rooted in a real-world phenomenon, designed to be relevant and engaging for learners.
      • Simulations are included in:

    With these hands-on, interactive resources, students don’t just memorize facts—they analyze data, construct explanations, engage in scientific reasoning, and more.

    *Simulation-based articles can be found in our middle school physics course. Check out an example here.

    Image of fire, bacteria in a dish, and the Golden Gate bridge, all available in Khan Academy's hands-on activities and simulation-based exercises.
    How can a big log turn into a tiny pile of ash when it burns? How can scientists make bacteria glow? How do engineers design strong bridges? Answer these questions and more with Khan Academy’s hands-on activities and simulation-based exercises and articles.

    Teacher tools for easy planning

    We know how busy science teachers are. That’s why we’ve created unit guides and planning tools to help you bring Khan Academy into your classroom with ease.Our goal is to help teachers save time while delivering meaningful, standards-based instruction. Every High School unit guide includes:

    • Lesson overviews and essential questions
    • Learning objectives and teaching tips
    • Ideas for integrating Khan Academy videos, articles, and exercises
    • Relevant phenomena to anchor lessons
    • Common misconceptions and how to address them
    • Student resources, such as simulations, note taking templates, and more!

    Whether you’re planning a full unit or just looking for a supplemental resource, Khan Academy makes it easy to find what you need, when you need it.

    Image of Khan Academy science unit guides

    Texas teachers, we’ve got you covered

    Khan Academy offers a robust set of science resources designed specifically to support Texas teachers and students. Our TEKS-aligned science courses ensure comprehensive coverage of required content. 

    Each unit in these courses is accompanied by high-quality, teacher-facing unit guides. These guides include learning objectives, teaching tips, common student misconceptions, and Texas-specific phenomena to anchor instruction.

    Whether you’re planning a full curriculum or supplementing classroom instruction, these resources are built to help Texas educators teach with confidence and flexibility.

    Discover what’s possible in your science classroom

    Khan Academy is here to support you with engaging, rigorous, and completely free resources. Whether you’re launching a new unit, differentiating instruction, or preparing for an AP exam, our science collection helps your students succeed.

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    Jess Heitner

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