Dr. Jessica Tilli, Director of Math, School District of Philadelphia
What happens when a school in one of the most underserved communities in America decides to prioritize family partnerships as a strategy to boost math and reading achievement? If you build it, will they come?
Charlotte Gillum, a former social worker turned school leader, is the proud principal of Elkin Elementary School in Philadelphia. Elkin is located in the heart of Kensington, an area known for its open-air drug market and high rates of poverty and homelessness. Having served this community for the past eight years, Charlotte has made it her mission to expand opportunities for the children and families she serves. She recognized a need to engage families in learning how to support their children outside of school. She tasked her school-based teacher leader, Jasselle Cirino, with spearheading a family engagement program that would do just that.
In 2023, Charlotte and her leadership team launched a program called “Kinder and Me.” Every Friday that year, they invited kindergarten families to stay after drop-off and participate in family workshops with their children over breakfast. The team developed a scope and sequence of workshops, and each Friday at 8:15 a.m., they welcomed an average of 40 families to join their team of leaders, teachers, and paraprofessionals to learn about their child’s education. Workshops began with community building, followed by sharing essential kindergarten skills and engaging in activities with their children. Materials for these activities were provided for families to take home and continue the engagement. When they started weekly workshops, they focused on reading skills, but very quickly learned that families wanted support with mathematics. The Elkin team responded accordingly, tapping their math school-based teacher leader, Tessa Nitkin to support, and began rotating the content focus of their sessions so families could develop skills and understanding in both subject areas. Charlotte credits her school-based teacher leaders for the success of the program, “Jasselle and Tessa took it, and they nurtured it. And it’s grown into something that we’re really proud of.”
Some educators complain that even when they offer opportunities for families to become more engaged, they do not show up. Elkin’s “Kinder and Me” program is a testament to the fact that when leadership thinks outside the box and builds something that considers and meets the needs of their community, they will come. At Elkin, they would catch parents at drop-off time and literally bring them into the building. Charlotte says families “always come for their kids.” Jasselle had the idea to hold pep rallies the Wednesday before each Friday workshop in each classroom to build excitement and encourage children to invite their families. The leadership team is also at the door on Friday mornings, playing music with welcoming faces and inviting families to join that morning’s workshop, convincing them that they have five minutes to spare. Charlotte jokes that five, ten, or thirty minutes pass, and the parents realize they’ve been there for 45 minutes! If families attend at least four of these workshops, they receive a t-shirt and participate in an end-of-year celebration where they eat pancakes and bacon and receive the book If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Families are also encouraged to share videos of themselves engaging in learned activities at home, for which their children receive a prize. Marie Cortes, a parent at Elkin whose daughter is now in first grade shares, “to see the happiness on my daughter’s face every time we get to spend time learning together…for me it’s the quality time we spend and the ability to know how the teacher teaches my daughter.” Marie also shared that this programming changed the way she felt about the staff and school her daughter attends, “it helped me build a stronger relationship with the staff feeling part of the team, more confident in volunteering, and communicating my needs as a parent.”
Charlotte says that the impact of “Kinder and Me” has been clear. Beyond community building and trust development, kindergarten attendance increased by 13% year over year, and the school has seen gains on the STAR assessment in both math and reading, a district-administered test to measure and monitor student progress. The pilot program was so successful that when the kindergarten families became first-grade families, they demanded the program continue and expand to both first grade and kindergarten. Now, with a family advisory team, Charlotte and her team make decisions about workshop content with community input. Charlotte shares that when you plan with families, not for them, you can truly meet their needs and build meaningful partnerships that ultimately support students. In the 2024-25 school year, the team launched “Firsty and Me” and continue to average 80 families for both kindergarten and first grade. Although the programming has moved to every other week to accommodate “Firsty and Me,” families share that the best part of the workshops is bonding with their children inside the school building.
