5 in 5: Elisabeth Stock, PowerMyLearning’s Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

Results for America Fellowship Alumni give five answers in five minutes. This month, we caught up with Elisabeth Stock, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of PowerMyLearning.

1. Summarize what you do and how you do it.
   I lead a national nonprofit called PowerMyLearning that helps teachers advance their instructional practices and channel the exponential power that occurs when the trio of teachers, families, and students collaborate on the same learning goals. Our distinctive approach advances educational equity and accelerates students’ social-emotional learning and academic achievement.
2. Share something exciting that you’re working on.
   I’m really excited about Family Playlists–a new form of homework assignments that families (and kids) can receive on their mobile phones in more than 100 languages. The innovation has students teach their family partner a concept they learned in class, leveraging the learning science behind the adage: “you don’t really know something until you can teach it.” We’ve seen incredible results at our partner schools and districts: families engage in their children’s learning; teachers learn about their students as whole children; and students grow academically and social-emotionally.
3. Tell us one thing you learned from someone else during your RFA Fellowship.
   One thing I learned from my RFA Fellowship colleagues is that, in many social service sectors (e.g., criminal justice, foster care, addiction), there is a deep understanding that behavior change can only happen within the context of relationships. Unfortunately, this is not true of the K-12 education sector where relationships are sorely undervalued and rarely talked about. Going into the fellowship, I did not envision that, within a year, my team would be able to do a deep dive with an RFA organization in a completely different sector to learn how they measure relationships and help us improve our game.
4. If you could wave a magic wand and have any data or evidence, what would it be?
   I would use my magic wand to fill out the body of evidence around the impact of the learning relationships between students, teachers, and families — something we call “triangle of learning relationships.” At PowerMyLearning, we have been able to conduct a number of studies showing strong outcomes: for example, we analyzed the impact of Family Playlists and found that 7th grade students experienced statistically significant gains on the state math test equivalent to four additional months of learning. But building a body of evidence takes time and I just wish we could fast-forward to that point in time when we have hundreds of studies proving this approach.
5. What’s the [pick-your-adjective] job you’ve ever had?
   Looking back, the most eye-opening job I had was when I served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana, West Africa. It was there I first experienced the power of relationships to improve student outcomes — an experience that led me to found PowerMyLearning 20 years ago and one that continues to motivate me today.

Extra Question: How is PowerMyLearning adapting its work in response to COVID-19?
We are committed to helping school and district leaders who are mobilizing to implement remote learning plans in response to COVID-19. The data is stark: one-third of those living in poverty rely on mobile-only Internet access. This is why we have made the decision to offer Family Playlists completely free of charge to all impacted schools and districts now through the end of the school year. Family Playlists use a research-based approach to offer multilingual, mobile-friendly homework assignments that have students teach what they are learning to a family partner at home.

Elisabeth Stock participated in Results for America’s What Works Nonprofit Fellowship.