Make access understandable
A free product is not automatically an accessible one. Students and families still need to understand what it is, why it is official, how it fits into preparation, and whether it was made for someone in their circumstances.
As a youth advisor, I helped connect the Khan Academy partnership and launch to rural access, mobile use, press, and survey design used across 3.9 million AP exams each year. The student perspective mattered because distribution breaks when adults assume every learner has the same support system.
Design the message around the barrier
National language had to hold up across very different realities: a student with a counselor and broadband, a student relying on a phone, and a rural school with fewer commercial preparation options. “Free” described the price. “Official, practical, and available where students already learn” described the value.
For the 2014 partnership announcement, I helped shape the messaging, launch, and PR so the access promise was clear: official preparation would be free and available to every student. One year after launch, Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy had more than 1.4 million unique users—four times the annual population of all commercial test-prep classes combined.
Public artifacts
One Year Since Launch - the public update on adoption and access.
College Board Enlists Khan Academy for SAT Prep - Education Week's coverage of the partnership and its access goals.
Khan Academy Gets Major Partnership to Close “Rich Advantage” in College Test Prep - TechCrunch's coverage of the same launch from a technology perspective.
Free Personalized Practice for the Redesigned SAT Now Available to All Students - the College Board newsroom announcement.
Let's Level the Playing Field for SAT Prep - Khan Academy's announcement of the partnership and the case for free, official preparation.