PowerMyLearning’s Early Grades Math Program

K-12 STEAM education

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

In order to create a truly comprehensive learning experience, it is crucial to involve families in a meaningful way. By creating a program that easily extends math learning from the classroom to their home, we can foster a supportive and collaborative environment that enhances a child's educational journey. However, the lack of resources dedicated to family involvement often hinders our ability to provide the necessary support and opportunities for meaningful engagement, thereby limiting the potential benefits for both students and their families. Schools are also often looking for more opportunities for students to practice and master grade-level math content. Family Playlists offers a way to authentically engage families in their child’s learning and helps teachers support their students in mastering math while developing the social-emotional skills they need to succeed.

This evidence-based program for grades K-2 equips teachers to foster positive math mindsets, master instructional best practices, and gain insights from student work to guide instruction. Our program merges professional learning with Family Playlists, a play-based math practice tool aligned with school curricula. Family Playlists promote grade-level content mastery through play-based learning and math discourse, emphasizing “sense-making” over merely finding answers, thus providing teachers with deep insights into students' mathematical thinking.
Through Family Playlists, students engage in interactive, curriculum-aligned games with a learning partner and create videos explaining their learning. Teachers use these videos and other data as formative assessments to tailor instruction. Combined with coaching, this tool helps teachers enhance their math practice by identifying common student misconceptions and facilitating on-grade-level discourse.
When students teach lesson content to a trusted family partner, they gain a deeper and more enduring understanding of the material than those who do not teach it. This strategy is a highly effective instructional practice with a strong evidence base but is often underutilized.
Families provide feedback after each activity to communicate with teachers about their child’s understanding of the concepts covered in the playlist, which allows them to be a part of their child’s learning process.

PowerMyLearning's Family Playlists will bridge the gap between school and home, bringing families into the learning process in a meaningful way and fostering a nurturing and inclusive environment where students can excel in STEM and thrive academically.
Recently, Family Playlists achieved official Unified Digital Instructional Procurement Plan (UDIPP) certification from LAUSD. This means that our tool meets rigorous security protocols around protecting student personally identifiable information (PII) and data privacy and can now be used in LAUSD schools. Given UDIPP certification, we are now in a prime position to scale our reach within LAUSD and make a significant difference in K-2 math student achievement and family engagement. Family Playlists launched nationally during the 2022-2023 school year and was piloted in Los Angeles this school year at a Camino Nuevo Charter Academy elementary school.

PowerMyLearning will measure success through a series of surveys that families will complete after participating in our program. 70% of parents who participate in our program and complete our Family Survey will mark “more confidence” or “much more confidence” to the statement: “Based on your child’s experience with Family Playlists, how has your child’s confidence in math changed?” 70% of parents will also mark “stronger connection” or “much stronger connection” to the statement: “Based on your experience with Family Playlists, how has your connection to your child’s school changed.”