“What if I told you we have a solution to our persistent academic problems, and we just need more teachers and more students to adopt them?” said Kristen DiCerbo, chief learning officer at Khan Academy, in her Big Idea talk at Philanthropy Roundtable’s Annual Meeting in October.
Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress survey results show a stark divide in our nation’s students. Top-performing students are rebounding post-pandemic, while “The students who are struggling the most are the ones who are continuing to see decreases in their abilities,” said DiCerbo. “These are actual students who are not prepared for the skills they need in the future.”
DiCerbo said the solution to this divide is simple: practice. Students need repetition, feedback and support and far more than teachers can deliver alone in classrooms of 30 students.
Khan Academy has long provided this at scale with more than 1.7 million students a year practicing at levels proven to improve long-term outcomes. However, Khan is now harnessing the power of AI to help kids catch up.
When teachers can’t offer real-time help when students get stuck, AI tutoring shows promise, DiCerbo said. In 2023, Khan Academy launched Khanmigo to serve as “a human tutor sitting next to them,” motivating students, helping them get unstuck and providing immediate feedback.
While some fear AI will just give students the answer, research shows effective and thoughtful design leads to better learning outcomes.
“AI is a tool. We build the tools to do what we want, and if we build the tools for education, we can build them in a way that supports learning and keeps our students safe,” DiCerbo said.
Khanmigo includes chat transcripts and safety checks. It uses Khan Academy’s “human written, human reviewed” materials to stay accurate and instructionally sound.
Districts that pair teacher training with consistent AI use see students learning eight to 14 times more than independent users, DiCerbo said. Khan hopes to double the number of high-impact learners by 2029.
“We believe we need to focus on those key foundational skills for students and that Khanmigo can help accelerate our progress if it’s designed by education experts with educational goals in mind. With this strategy, we can improve the outcomes of millions of learners around the globe.”
For more information about Khan Academy, contact Program Director Stephen Allison.
