Level Up does the part Khan Academy leaves to you.
Khan Academy is a superb library, and its own homeschool guide asks the parent to browse it and decide what the child should work on. Level Up makes that decision for you, in order, and brings each skill back before it fades.
Level Up meets all twelve. Khan Academy meets two, and is partway on two.
Is Level Up better than Khan Academy?
They do different jobs. Khan Academy is a free library of lessons and practice from Pre-K to calculus, and its own homeschool guide asks the parent to decide what the child works on. Level Up is a K-8 program that makes that decision for you: an assessment finds the missing skills, including ones from earlier grades, and daily practice works through them in order and brings each one back before it fades. Khan Academy is the better fit if money is the main limit or your child already knows what to work on.
Twelve things to check in any K-8 math program
| What decides whether it works | Level Up | Khan Academy |
|---|---|---|
| Try it before you paySee the whole thing, and your child’s report, while you can still change your mind | Every plan opens with 7 days free, then stays refundable in full for 30 days after the first charge.You read the report, and watch the first skills clear, with the decision still open. | Free, so there is nothing to try before. That is a genuine advantage and we are not going to pretend otherwise. |
| Names the missing skillsTells you which specific skills are missing | The report names them, one by one, in plain language. A grade level is not a diagnosis: the children we assess are missing about 200 specific skills on average. | No. Khan Academy’s own homeschool guide asks the parent to browse the content library and decide what the child should focus on.A Course Challenge can then check one course the parent picked. |
| Goes back to earlier gradesGoes back to earlier grades on its own when the gap is older | When your child keeps getting stuck on a skill, practice steps back to the earlier skill it builds on.A 5th grader stuck on fractions is often missing a piece of 3rd grade. The assessment finds those earlier skills and puts them on your child’s board, with no “remedial” label, and during practice Level Up opens the earlier skill with a worked example and works on that foundation first. | You choose the course. Nothing moves your child back to an earlier grade on its own. |
| Proven, not counted | A skill clears only when your child has solved the harder versions too, consistently. Proven, not counted, so it does not come undone in November. | In Khan’s classic version, two correct answers inside a six-question Mastery Challenge can move a skill from Proficient to Mastered. |
| Progress never taken away | Progress only moves forward. A wrong answer is information about what to practice next, never a penalty, and missing a day costs nothing. | In Khan’s classic version, missing both questions on a skill inside a Mastery Challenge levels that skill back down. |
| Brings skills back before they fade | Everything not revisited is forgotten. Level Up resurfaces a skill on the day it is most likely to slip, and stretches the gap wider as it gets solid. | Mastery Challenges mix in skills your child has already practiced, but not on a schedule built around forgetting. |
| No points, streaks, leaderboards | None of it. No leaderboards, no points, no comparison with other children. The only comparison is to where your child was last week. | Energy points, badges and weekly streaks. A streak ends if your child does not reach a new skill in a week. |
| A goal and a reward at homeA goal your child chose, and a reward that means something at home | You and your child agree a Quest: a size, from about two weeks to a school-year milestone, and a real reward you both name.Level Up sizes the target from what your child can actually reach, progress counts only skills genuinely mastered, and you both sign it. | You can assign work with due dates. There is no goal or reward that you and your child set together. |
| Covers all of K-8 | Every Common Core standard from kindergarten through 8th grade, and one subscription covers the whole range. | Yes, and it keeps going all the way through calculus. |
| Works without you beside them | Yes. The next session is already built from the last one, so there is nothing for you to set up, choose or supervise. | Not really. Somebody has to choose the course and what to focus on, and that somebody is you. |
| See every problem attempted | Every problem attempted, solved or not, how long each one took, and what was mastered this week against last. Evidence of learning, not minutes logged. | Progress by skill on a free parent account, whether or not you assign work. |
| A dose you can sustain | About 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for one monthly price no matter how much your child uses it. | Possible and free. Sustaining it comes down to your child’s self-direction and to your time. |
| Level Up is ahead on ten of the twelve, level on two (try it before you pay and covers all of k-8). | ||
What each one costs
A month of Level Up costs about what one hour of private tutoring does.
Why Level Up costs more. You pay for the decisions Khan Academy leaves to you: an assessment that finds the missing skills, a practice path built for your child and updated every day, a step back to the earlier skill when your child is stuck, a daily warm-up that keeps skills solid, and Quests with a reward your family chooses.
How the free trial works
- 7 days free. A card is collected at signup and nothing is charged that day.
- The assessment and your child’s report both happen inside those 7 days.
- When the trial ends the plan starts at $49 a month, $196 every 6 months, or $294 a year, unless you cancel first.
- $29 a month for each additional child ($116 every 6 months, $174 a year). One trial covers every child on the account.
- 30-day money-back guarantee on your first charge, on any plan.
This is what you get on day one, before any charge.
The assessment happens inside the 7 free days. When it finishes, a report like this is built for your child. This one is real, with the child’s name changed.
Scrolls inside the frame. The full report opens below.
Math became much less of a struggle.
Level Up parentThey want to do math almost every day because they want to make progress toward their quest rewards. I can see that they are learning and becoming more confident, but also that doing math has become much less of a struggle. For me, that’s probably the biggest thing.
LauraMother of a fourth and an eighth grader, American International School
Khan Academy gives you the library. Level Up decides what to practice, and in what order.
Khan’s homeschool guide starts with “make a list of what you think your child should focus on”. Level Up’s assessment makes that list from your child’s own answers, and the practice follows it every day.
Four things the research agrees on. Level Up does all four.
Worked examples
Studying a solved problem step by step improves math results (Barbieri and colleagues, 2023, Educational Psychology Review, a review of the studies).
Level Up: a worked solution after every wrong answer, and a worked example when practice steps back to an earlier skill.
Mastery before moving on
Moving on only after a skill is shown raised exam results by about half a standard deviation (Kulik, Kulik and Bangert-Drowns, 1990, Review of Educational Research).
Level Up: a skill counts only when your child has proven it, including on the harder problems.
Practice spread over time
Practice spread over days is remembered far longer than the same practice done at once (Cepeda and colleagues, 2006, Psychological Bulletin, 317 experiments).
Level Up: a daily warm-up brings skills back when they are most likely to slip.
Recalling, not rereading
Being asked to recall a skill strengthens it more than reviewing it (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006, Psychological Science).
Level Up: every review is a question your child answers, never a page to reread.
Khan Academy’s own study, and one Level Up student.
About 20% more growth than expected
In schools, students who used Khan Academy at least 30 minutes a week grew about 20% more than expected on MAP Growth. About 9 in 100 students reached that amount. The study shows a link, not that Khan caused the gain.
Khan Academy, efficacy results for 2022-23, about 350,000 students in grades 3 to 8
+18 percentile points
A sample student practiced about 15 hours over six weeks one summer, and the MAP math score went from the 69th percentile in spring to the 87th in fall. One student is an example, not a promise, and results can vary.
Khan Academy may be better if your child...
- Money is the binding constraint. Khan Academy is free and carries no advertising.
- Your child is self-directed and already knows what they need to work on.
- You want one program that runs from Pre-K all the way to calculus.
Otherwise, Level Up is ahead of Khan Academy on 10 of the 12 areas that help kids become proficient in math, and level on the two Khan Academy meets.
Level Up and Khan Academy, answered.
Is Khan Academy enough for math?
For a self-directed child who knows what to work on, it can be. For a child who is behind, the hard part is knowing which earlier skills are missing, and Khan Academy leaves that choice to you. Level Up’s assessment finds them and puts the practice in order.
Does Khan Academy have a placement test?
Not for a child at home. A Course Challenge checks one course you choose. Khan’s MAP-based practice needs a MAP score from school, and Khan calls it a prototype. Level Up starts with an assessment that goes back into earlier grades on its own.
Is Khan Academy really free?
Yes, and it has no ads. Khanmigo, its AI helper, costs $4 a month and is available in the US only.
Can we use Khan Academy and Level Up together?
Yes. Khan Academy’s videos are a good way to see a topic explained. Level Up decides what to practice and when to review it.
How much time does each need?
Khan Academy’s own studies point to at least 30 minutes a week in school. Level Up recommends about 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
How much does Level Up cost?
$49 a month for the first child and $29 for each additional child. The first 7 days are free, and the assessment and the report happen inside them. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee.