11. Khan Academy
Khan Academy
A nonprofit learning platform with more than 840 courses for kindergarten through early college: math, science, English language arts, social studies, economics, computing, life skills and test prep. Its About page describes the courses and the teacher tools as free. The same nonprofit publishes Khan Academy Kids, a separate free app for ages 2 to 8.
Watch for The About page does not give a price for Khanmigo, the AI tutoring tool, so confirm its cost separately before planning around it.
Visit Khan Academy ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
A library of thousands of free videos, lesson plans and games aligned to state and national standards, for PreK through 12. A free account adds saving resources, playlists, class rosters and sharing to Google Classroom. Collections for older grades include U.S. History, NOVA, Ken Burns in the Classroom and PBS NewsHour Classroom.
Watch for It is a library to build lessons from, not a self-paced course, and saving, playlists and rosters need a free account.
Visit PBS LearningMedia ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
A nonprofit library of more than 6,000 reading passages for K-12: fiction, nonfiction and poetry, each with comprehension questions, plus vocabulary activities and Article-A-Day sets. Passages can be read on screen, printed or projected. ReadWorks states it is free and will always be free for teachers and students.
Watch for The free account is for educators; the sign-up page says it is not intended for students.
Visit ReadWorks ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
A nonprofit's K-8 math platform. Students work through digital lessons with onscreen teachers, visual models and digital manipulatives, and every lesson includes paper-and-pencil problem solving. Zearn reports a Strong (Tier 1) rating from Evidence for ESSA.
The free part: Always-free teacher and individual-classroom accounts cover one teacher and up to 35 students, with the full Zearn Math platform and instructional materials.
School Accounts are paid; pricing is by quote on the maker's site
Watch for The free account covers one classroom of up to 35 students; using Zearn across a whole school needs a paid School Account.
Visit Zearn ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
A nonprofit text library for grades 3 to 12 with standards-aligned lessons, plus CommonLit 360, a full-year ELA curriculum for grades 6 to 12. The pricing page says the text library and the 360 curriculum are free for teachers and always will be.
The free part: The text library and the CommonLit 360 curriculum are free for teachers, with a free account.
School and district plans are quoted per school on the maker's pricing page
Watch for English and reading only. The paid school and district plans are where professional development, assessments and Clever or ClassLink rostering sit, so a lone teacher goes without those.
Visit CommonLit ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
PBS KIDS says it helps children ages 2 to 8 learn through games and videos from shows such as Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Wild Kratts. The site has a Grown-Ups section, and the PBS KIDS Games app is described by PBS as a free download.
Watch for It is pitched at ages 2 to 8, so children run out of road after about second grade; PBS KIDS also carries funder acknowledgements on its apps and websites.
Visit PBS KIDS ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
Free interactive simulations from the University of Colorado Boulder in physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and math. They run in a browser or can be downloaded, and the site includes teaching activities and a middle school section. The sponsors named on the site keep them free for all students and teachers.
Watch for The simulations are exploratory, so pair each with an activity or focus questions; PhET lists teaching activities for that.
Visit PhET Interactive Simulations ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
88. Scratch
Scratch Foundation
A free block-based coding site from the Scratch Foundation, where children make stories, games and animations by snapping blocks together. The foundation lists it for ages 8 to 13 and up and points ages 5 to 7 to its ScratchJr app. Teachers can use Teacher Accounts to create and manage student accounts, and an offline app is available.
Watch for Younger children need ScratchJr; Teacher Accounts are the way to set up a class, so allow time for that first setup.
Visit Scratch ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
A free typing program with grade-based lessons, tests and games, plus free teacher accounts with classroom settings. It describes itself as the world's most popular free typing program.
The free part: The free edition has the full Learn to Type curriculum (lessons, tests and games) and classroom-level settings, with ads and 70-day data retention.
PLUS (ad-free, more features) is priced by the number of students; get a quote on the maker's site
Watch for The free edition shows ads and keeps student data for 70 days; the ad-free PLUS edition is paid.
Visit Typing.com ↗ Facts read on the maker’s page.
1010. CK-12
CK-12 Foundation
A nonprofit offering free K-12 digital textbooks (FlexBooks that teachers can customize), adaptive practice, and more than 100 physics and chemistry simulations. Its practice pages say the service is free forever. Content is strongest in math and science.
Watch for The catalog is built mainly around math and science, so it will not cover a full school day on its own.
Visit CK-12 ↗