New in Kira: A Thought Partner for Teachers, a Control Center for Districts

Kira works alongside teachers every day, and our September releases take that even further.

These updates are built around the everyday responsibilities of teachers and district leaders: the prep teachers put in before every lesson, the assessments they write and revise, the accommodations they’re responsible for, the feedback they need from students, and the calls districts make about which tools their schools and students can use. Here’s how Kira now helps with each one: prepping, assessing, supporting, listening, and governing.

Prep made easy

Teaching Notes is Kira’s version of speaker notes, like presenter notes in PowerPoint or Keynote. Write them yourself, or let Kira draft them from the lesson, factoring in how your classes are performing. Either way, Kira helps you walk in ready to present, knowing what to teach and how.

• A presenter's script for every lesson. Kira drafts notes for each step, including how to frame it, what students should take away, and the questions to ask, so you never start prep from a blank page.

• A thought partner for every lesson. Think through the lesson with Kira, from likely misconceptions to pacing, the way you would with a colleague, before you’re in front of the room.

• Data-informed, not generic. Unlike other tools, Teaching Notes know your lesson and your classes, so prep reflects the students actually in front of you.

• Right there when you teach. Your notes follow along as you present in Live Classroom, and students never see them.

  
  

Assessments built and edited by chat

Ask Kira for Assessments brings the same Ask Kira teachers already know from lessons into the assessment editor, giving you a co-pilot for every test. Describe what you need, and Kira drafts it with you.

• Standards alignment without the search. Ask which standards a question covers, and Kira answers with the official codes and why, right in the editor.

• Edit by describing, not clicking. Ask for "two multiple-choice questions on photosynthesis" or to "make questions 2 to 4 easier," and watch your assessment update. No copying questions over from another tool. 

• Turn your materials into questions. Upload a reading, a slide deck, or your notes, and Kira writes questions from them.

• Rubrics included. New free-response, essay, and coding questions come with a rubric, so open-ended work is ready to grade from the start.

• Big changes wait for your approval. Before Kira deletes, reorders, or rewrites a batch of questions, it explains what it plans to do and waits for your go-ahead.

Student accommodations built in

Accommodations make sure students who need extra help get it every time, in every place it applies, without teachers having to remember.

• Set it once, and it’s done. Turn on a student’s accommodations from within the Student Atlas, and they apply everywhere they’re relevant, with no setup on each assessment.

• More time on every test. Extended time applies to every assessment the student takes, at +25%, +50%, +100%, or a custom amount.

• Fewer choices without giving anything away. Eligible multiple-choice questions show fewer options across lessons, activities, courses, and assessments, and the correct answer is always kept.

• Support without the spotlight. Students simply see their extended time and reduced choices with no indication that an accommodation is in place.

• See exactly what students will see. A preview shows the extended time and the hidden answer choices before anything goes live, along with who last updated the settings.

Student feedback gathered with ease

Surveys help students feel heard and help teachers see their class through students' eyes: what feels unclear, whether the pace and workload are manageable, what's helping them learn, and where they may need more support.

• Surveys built for the classroom. Describe what you want to ask and let Kira draft a survey, or start from one of 12 ready-made classroom templates like Teaching & Instruction Feedback, Wellbeing Check-In, and more. Every survey can be edited before it goes out.

• A comfortable space for honest feedback. Students know up front whether a survey is anonymous, and they can skip any question they'd rather not answer.

• See the patterns. AI Insights summarizes the themes in written answers, so you're not reading every response one by one. You can also nudge students who haven't responded yet.

• Show students they were heard. Share a Teacher Response with the class about what will change, so students see their feedback made a difference.

  
  

District-wide feature controls in one place

Features & AI is the control center for features and AI tools in Kira. It's where district leaders decide which tools their teachers and students can access, and whether the schools under them can change those settings.

• Your AI policy, in your hands. Instead of managing a separate app for each task, turn individual AI tools on or off for your organization all in one place.

• One decision for every school. Lock a setting so it applies to every school underneath you, or let schools decide for themselves.

• The right AI for the right grade. Keep AI Tutor off for elementary and on for grades 6–12, or exclude specific classes from tools like AI Tutor and automatic AI grading.

• Only the tools you’ve approved. Tools you turn off disappear from the product, with no grayed-out buttons or “contact your admin” messages.

• See the impact before you implement. Before you lock a setting, Kira tells you how many schools it will affect, and school admins can see which organization set each one.

A thought partner in the classroom and a control center for the district, all in one platform. Standalone AI tools each solve one task, outside your classroom and without your data. With Kira, a teacher’s lesson prep and a district’s tool settings live in the same place, and that’s what instructional coherence looks like.