Khan Academy Kids

For the past several years my teachers have been using Khan Academy Kids as a resource in their Pre-K classrooms. According to the website, “Kids build foundational skills in early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math - all through interactive learning games and engaging lessons” (khanacademy.org/kids). Many of our teachers use it during small group rotations at one of the independent stations. The learning games are engaging and the app renders data for the teacher to check student progress. Research backs up what we’re seeing in the classroom: interactive apps like this can really boost engagement and help kids master new skills more effectively than older methods (Patil & Juanico, 2024).  However, the free version doesn’t allow teachers to dig into the details of the data.

Recently Khan Academy announced a grant for school districts to have access to the premium features for free for the next two years. The extra features give the district a dashboard so that there’s an administrative view with aggregated data from across the district, the teachers have access to more detailed data, and there is an assessment feature. This is probably the most intriguing part for me. I’m curious to see what their formal assessment feature is like, and how effective it is.

In Pre-K, we do formal assessments at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. There is certain data that must submitted to the state, and there’s a list of approved assessments that districts can choose from. The issue is that most of them cost money, and most school districts including mine are not willing to pay since there is one assessment available for free. However, you often get what you pay for. The assessment is clunky, time consuming, and not really developmentally appropriate. However, the Khan Academy Kids group is trying to break into this market. They have aspirations to get the assessment on the commissioner’s list of approved assessments, and they would like to figure out how to offer it for “free” as well.

My understanding is that the assessment can be given on an ipad in small groups administered in 10 minute segments. I don’t know how many segments there are, but if it’s effective then this would be a game changer. Currently, the Circle test which we use as a district, has to be administered by the teacher which requires one on one administration. If it were possible to administer a test that students can engage on their own with supervision, and if it were actually developmentally appropriate, this would be a huge win. Research shows that moving toward digital-first assessments can take a huge weight off teachers' shoulders while making the whole experience feel much more natural for the kids (Karimov et al., 2025).

I’ve already applied for the grant and secured a contract for the next two years. Our teachers are onboard and ready to go. All I need is for a cohort of teachers that will commit to using the assessment with fidelity so that we can get the data to determine whether the test is effective and whether it meets our criteria for TIA. If it meets our thresholds and the Khan Kids app gets approved by the state in the coming years we’ll be poised to shift over to Khan Kids. Even if they aren’t able to offer it for free the pricing is relatively low. Currently it would be five dollars per student and we generally have close to 800 students in Pre-K. It might be a stretch but there would at least be the possibility of budgeting for the funds.

References

Karimov, A., Nolte, A., Chounta, I. A., Saarela, M., & Kärkkäinen, T. (2025). Improving learning experience through process re-engineering: Khan Academy localization into

Azerbaijani. Frontiers in Education, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1419362

Khan Academy. (2024). Khan Academy Kids (Version 8.3) [Mobile app]. App Store. https://learn.khanacademy.org/khan-academy-kids/

Patil, P. A., & Juanico, J. F. (2024). The effectiveness of Khan Academy in teaching elementary math. Behavior Analysis in Practice. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-024-00982-6