Partnership Story
How Future Ready Five Is Closing the Kindergarten Readiness Gap in Franklin County
A Columbus nonprofit brought Khan Academy Kids into independent child care centers across Franklin County. Two years in, the data shows what under 15 minutes of app time a week can do inside a strong coaching program.
Partner
Future Ready Five
Location
Columbus, Ohio
Organization Type
501(c)(3) nonprofit early-childhood intermediary
Program
Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative (KRC)
Reach
Independent preschool and child care centers across Franklin County
Mission
Future Ready Five's mission is to transform early learning and achieve educational success for all.
Bar chart comparing 67% literacy outcome growth in SY 2024-25 to 71% in SY 2025-26 for children ages three to five in Future Ready Five classrooms
Growth in Literacy Outcomes
71% growth in literacy outcomes among children ages three to five

"One of the most rewarding moments has been visiting classrooms where children eagerly ask if it's their turn to use Khan Academy Kids. We've seen students who were initially hesitant to participate in literacy activities become excited about practicing letter sounds, phonological awareness, and early reading skills."

Megan Hamilton, Director, Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative, Future Ready Five
Why Khan Academy Kids
  • Adaptive by design. Children worked at their own pace, reinforcing what teachers were already covering. In mixed-readiness rooms, one activity could serve a child working on letter sounds and a child already blending words.
  • Teacher-tested credibility. Several FR5 staff are former classroom teachers who had used Khan Academy Kids themselves, so FR5 already trusted it going into the rollout.
  • A cost model that fit a nonprofit mission. Low-cost access to a high-quality tool mattered for a program built to remove barriers for under-resourced centers.
  • A partnership model built for their structure. FR5 doesn't serve one district. It supports many independent centers, and the Khan Academy Kids team adapted onboarding and support to that structure, which FR5 credits as central to a smooth rollout across multiple sites.
None of this was a generic ed-tech purchase. Every decision driver traced back to FR5's actual operating model: many small centers, limited budgets, and a coaching program that needed a partner, not just a product.
The Impact
Future Ready Five's Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative posted 67% growth in literacy outcomes among children ages three to five in the 2024-25 school year, then 71% in 2025-26.

Each figure is that year's growth, not a running total. Future Ready Five grew outcomes substantially two years running and lifted the rate four percentage points in year two.
Future Ready Five
Program-wide
2025-26 school year
71%
growth in literacy outcomes among children ages three to five, program-wide SY 25-26. The second year of consecutive growth, following 67% in SY 24-25.
4,536
hours of  learning time; ~11.6 minutes per child per week
52,841
lessons completed; avg. 81 per student
68%
of lessons scored "Achieved" (80%+ accuracy)
48%
of time spent in Language Arts
Khan Academy Kids dashboard showing 4,536 hours of learning time and 52,841 lessons completed across Future Ready Five classrooms in the 2025-26 school year
Every child completed about 81 lessons and mastered about 55 of them. Two out of three lessons scored 80% or higher, the app's mastery threshold.

‍Practice went where the priority was. Nearly half of all learning time landed in Language Arts, Furture Ready Five's core focus. Time on task only counts if it's spent on the thing you're trying to move.

Use built and held. Lessons ramped steadily from October, peaked in February, and continued through the spring as centers moved toward summer schedules.
Line chart showing cumulative Khan Academy Kids lessons completed rising each month from October through June in Future Ready Five classrooms
The part worth noticing: how little it took
Under 15 minutes a week, per child. About two lessons, roughly five to seven minutes each. Seven hours across an entire school year. That's a very small ask of a preschool day. It's also the reason the rollout survived a second year.

Most early childhood programs have watched a promising tool arrive, get real use for six weeks, and then stop appearing in lesson plans by November. Khan Academy Kids didn't need a block carved out of the day or a teacher's prep time. It needed a few minutes. What those few minutes produced across roughly 650 children in 2025-26:
  • About 55 lessons at mastery per child, scored 80% or higher
  • Sustained use from October through June
  • Nearly half of all practice time in Language Arts, the skill Future Ready Five was working to move
Over those same two years, Future Ready Five's program grew literacy outcomes 67% and then 71%. Khan Academy Kids didn't produce those results on its own. Future Ready Five's coaching, curriculum, and assessment are what moved the outcomes. What Khan Academy Kids did was hold a consistent place in daily instruction inside a program that was working, without taking time away from the teacher-led instruction driving it.
How the pieces fit together
Khan Academy Kids is one component of Future Ready Five's Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative, alongside teacher coaching, evidence-based curriculum, and ongoing assessment. That combination is how Future Ready Five pursues its mission to transform early learning and achieve educational success for all.

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