From ROI to "Return on Learning": A District's Khan Academy Story

Some districts are banning AI outright. West Hempstead UFSD went the other direction — deliberately, with guardrails, and with a clear line about what belongs in elementary school and what doesn't. In this 47-minute conversation, Sal Khan asks Superintendent Dan Rehman and his teachers the uncomfortable questions: screen time, cheating, cognitive offloading, and whether any of this is appropriate for young children. 0:00 Welcome and Introductions 2:58 Why Implementation Matters More Than the Software 3:51 ROI vs. ROL: Measuring "Return on Learning" 5:06 How Khanmigo Makes Student Reasoning Visible 6:57 NY's Portrait of a Graduate and Personalized Pacing 8:33 Grade 2: Turning Screener Data into Targeted Practice 9:31 Grade 5: Meeting Every Learner in a Co-Taught Classroom 11:25 Supporting ENL and Multilingual Learners 12:10 Keeping Great Instruction at the Center 12:53 Grade 7 Math: Helping Students Find What They Don't Know 14:52 Teacher Productivity: Making the Renaissance Relevant 17:20 What's New in the Redesigned Khanmigo 19:25 First Reactions: Conversation Summaries and Student Purpose 20:09 Motivation, Constraints, and a Focus on Literacy and Numeracy 21:42 Productive Struggle and Asking Better Questions 23:08 Training the Adults First — and Why AI Won't Replace Teachers 25:35 Evidence, RCTs, and the Nonprofit Model 27:15 How West Hempstead Found Khan Academy 31:12 Building the PD Model: Just-in-Time Coaching and PLCs 34:50 Khanmigo Writing Coach and the Research Paper 36:00 Mastery-Based Grading and Data 37:35 Screen Time, Phone Bans, and AI Guardrails 39:00 The Case for a "Walled Garden" 40:11 AI in Elementary School: The Zoologist Story 41:14 Digital Citizenship and Preparing Students for an AI World 43:19 Cheating vs. Learning: Teaching Responsible Use 44:39 Sal's Closing Thoughts 46:40 What's Next