grassroots program

We made Khanmigo free and available in English for all grassroots teachers in the U.S.

The majority of Khan Academy users are the 114.8M grassroots users around the world who use our proven learning platform independently, outside of our Districts Partnerships program.
Many of these users are teachers. Teachers have incredibly important roles in shaping the classroom experience and student learning outcomes. Yet teachers are overworked and spend disproportionate time on time-consuming tasks outside the classroom. As an organization focused on improving student learning outcomes, we believe it’s our responsibility to equip teachers with the best possible tools to make their jobs easier, so they can spend as much time as possible with their students, facilitating learning.

To that end, we designed Khanmigo to lighten teachers’ workload. In partnership with Microsoft, we made Khanmigo free to all U.S. grassroots teachers in May 2024. With Khanmigo as a planning partner and instructional ally, teachers now have more time and energy to focus on what matters most—engaging students and focusing on learning outcomes.
With Khanmigo as a planning partner and instructional ally, teachers now have more time and energy to focus on what matters most—engaging students and focusing on learning outcomes.

Hear from Dr. Zimmerman, a grassroots teacher who tried Khanmigo this year and saved administrative cycles in the process:

Dr. Zimmerman is normally an administrator at Renton Prep in Washington state. However, when one of the teachers on staff at Renton Prep quit unexpectedly, Dr. Zimmerman stepped back into the role of teacher to ensure student learning wouldn’t miss a beat in Renton Prep’s 4th and 5th grade classrooms:
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“The very first thing I noticed was that the teacher who left hadn’t graded anything,” says Dr. Zimmerman. “I came in at two o’clock in the morning to prepare for the first day of taking over the class.” At 2:00 a.m., Dr. Zimmerman tried creating six lesson plans and quickly found himself overwhelmed and frustrated. At this point, Dr. Zimmerman hadn’t yet heard of Khanmigo. But that was about to change. The school’s principal suggested Khanmigo to Dr. Zimmerman, and he agreed to give it a shot.
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“For me, it was a lifesaver. I went from six hours of prep work [and] coming in at two o’clock in the morning to being ready for an eight o’clock class after coming in at seven o’clock.” During the time Dr. Zimmerman stepped into the role of teacher, one of the Khanmigo features he relied upon most heavily was the grading rubric tool, which can automatically generate rubrics and study questions.

Although Dr. Zimmerman will step back into his role as administrator and out of his temporary role as teacher in the coming school year, he plans to continue using Khanmigo at Renton Prep. “My goal [moving ahead] is to better use these resources so that other teachers can go home at the end of the day and not spend four or five hours grading.”  In a closing remark, Dr. Zimmerman shared that his interaction with Khanmigo inspired him to want to integrate Renton Prep into Khan Academy’s Districts Partnerships program. After seeing what Khanmigo can do for teachers, he’s excited to explore Khanmigo’s potential for students in the classroom as well.
“For me, [Khanmigo] was a lifesaver. I went from six hours of prep work [and] coming in at two o’clock in the morning to being ready for eight o’clock class after coming in at seven o’clock.
–Dr. Zimmerman on his experience using Khanmigo for the first time in 4th and 5th grade classrooms
–Dr. Zimmerman,
Administrator at Renton Prep
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