Her research focuses on understanding the needs of immigrant students in order to help them learn English and succeed in school. She also investigates how to use instructional technology to facilitate language and subject matter learning. Together with a research team from MIT, she is working to implement science curricula centered around invention, with a focus on incorporating science literacy for English language learners. She is also a research team member with the CityConnects group, studying why this whole child student supports intervention works with immigrant, second language students. In 2016 the Journal of Second Language Writing honored Kim with the Best Article Award for an article about using technology to help with collaborative writing tasks.