This is Kayla Banks’ first year teaching for the School District of Philadelphia. But according to those who have seen her at work? You wouldn’t know it.

One month into the 2025-26 school year, Banks’ 5th grade students at North Philadelphia’s James G. Blaine Academics Plus know it’s time to settle down and listen when she says, “Hocus Pocus.” (They respond, “Everybody’s focused.”)

She’s comfortable standing alone in the front of fidgety preteens and knows how to hold their attention. She has no problems creating lesson plans or adjusting existing ones to make them better suited to her hands-on teaching style.

Says Blaine Principal Gianeen Anyika, “I never saw a first-year teacher as prepared as Miss Banks.”

That’s because while this is Banks’ first year officially teaching, she has plenty of experience already. The 22-year-old recent Howard University graduate spent three summers working with Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, a nonprofit that recruits college students to teach summer enrichment classes to students in grades 5 to 8.

“It was hands-on teaching experience: You have your subject that you teach; you have your grade; you have your own classroom; you create your lessons,” Banks says.

One of Breakthrough’s goals is addressing the need for more Philadelphia public school teachers.

“People have left the education field in droves. We need more people to want to come into this field when there are so many other different fields that pay more money,” says Michelle Palmer, the nonprofit organization’s executive director. “Our goal is to fill the pipeline in Philadelphia.”

“I can go from lawyer to Supreme Court to the presidency. My dreams are unlimited.” — Neveah Tice, Breakthrough student

Breakthrough’s second goal is providing academic enrichment summer programming for motivated public, charter, or parochial school students in grades 5 through 8. During the school year, it has Saturday programming. The typical attendee goes to an under-resourced school, has good grades, and is eager to learn. About 225 students attended this year’s six-week summer programs at Germantown Friends.

For high school students, Breakthrough recently launched College Bound, a September to May Saturday program that helps students prepare for life after graduation. It includes resume writing and practice interviews as well as help with test prep, college choices, and financial planning. It has about 30 students.

Principal Anyika wasn’t familiar with Breakthrough before she interviewed Banks for her current position. Now she wonders if there are ways to work more closely with the nonprofit.

“I told my leadership team, ‘All teachers need to go through this program,’” Anyika says.

Solving a teacher shortage

This is an especially challenging time for urban educators. Funding on the federal and state levels are a continual problem even with the 2023 Commonwealth Court decision requiring Pennsylvania schools to provide a “thorough and efficient” education. There’s a nationwide shortage of teachers and, in PA, a Penn State research study found that districts with a greater percentage of students of color and students living in poverty had more vacant teaching positions than expected.

Breakthrough Collaborative was founded in San Francisco in 1978 and now has 25 affiliates. The Greater Philadelphia chapter was launched in 1995 by a group that included Germantown Friends School (GFS) alumni, teachers and administrators. The program is funded through individual, corporate, and foundation support. Since its founding, Breakthrough Philadelphia has served 1,600 students and more than 550 teaching fellows. Palmer estimates about 75 percent of those fellows have stayed in education.

“Breakthrough might seem relatively small compared to some organizations that serve 3,000 kids, but we provide what I call end-to-end support for the students,” says Palmer, who says the program had fewer than 100 summer students when the pandemic ended. “I’m excited about where we can go.”

Breakthrough tries to address the racial imbalance between educators and students: Students of color represent 37 percent of the public school population while teachers of color represent 7 percent of the teacher population, according to the PA Department of Education.

Yet multiple research studies have shown how great an impact having a teacher who “looks like you” can provide, helping students view the instructor as a role model, which encourages better behavior.

While Breakthrough accepts teachers of all skin colors, it has an emphasis on recruiting Black and Brown teachers, Palmer says. “We want the kids to recognize, see themselves, within their teachers,” she says.

Breakthrough’s teachers are paid during their nine-week program and are provided free housing. For the first two weeks, they are in training every day from 9am to 4pm, working with instructional coaches who are master teachers from the School District or GFS. They start teaching on week 3, observed by the instructional coaches who provide daily feedback on lesson plans and instructions. By summer’s end, the teaching fellows have gained more than 100 hours of teacher preparation.

“We need more people to want to come into this field when there are so many other different fields that pay more money. Our goal is to fill the pipeline in Philadelphia.” — Michelle Palmer, Germantown Friends School

Jennifer Valerio, Associate Director of the Urban Teaching Residency Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (GSE), learned about Breakthrough while looking for more opportunities for undergraduate students. Now Penn’s GSE is offering former Breakthrough participants accepted into its two-year graduate program an automatic $20,000 scholarship toward the school’s $60,000 yearly tuition.

“It’s a nice fit for college students who want to see if teaching is something that they want to do, to sort of test the waters and get some teaching experience before committing to a graduate teacher education program like ours,” Valerio says. “And by cutting down the cost, we’re removing barriers to becoming teachers. That’s hugely important as we face a shortage.”

Valerio has noticed that the graduate students who have gone through the Breakthrough program have a head start in developing their “teacher presence,” an intangible quality that comes with experience.

Valerio also appreciates Breakthrough’s multi-year commitment to student participants.

“It’s not a one-off,” she says. “It brings together students in middle school who want to be academically successful and take advantage of every opportunity available to them and builds a community.”

Banks agrees that Breakthrough is a great place to get a head start on actual teaching.

As an undergraduate, she says “you’re learning so much and getting lectured at and learning theories and different procedures and how to go about things, but actually apply,” she says. ”I’ve had a seamless transition to what I’m doing now, setting up procedures early on and creating a classroom environment where everybody wants to participate.”

Now, in an actual classroom, her more experienced colleagues are helping her refine her skills.

“I always felt prepared.”

Neveah Tice, 15, of Mt. Airy, enjoyed Breakthrough’s summer programs and is now taking part in College Bound. She’s a sophomore at Germantown Friends, a school she didn’t even consider before Breakthrough.

“I remember thinking, No way she’s going to private school” because of financial barriers, says Neveah’s mother Marissa Tice. “I couldn’t even dream up something like this.”

Summer enrichment programs generally aim to combat the loss of learning skills known as the “summer slide:” Neveah says Breakthrough did that for her, and more.

“They don’t just reteach you what you’ve already learned, but they help you keep it. So we’d relearn something, and then learn a little more,” she says. “It was definitely helpful. I always felt prepared to go into the next grade.”

Breakthrough doesn’t charge students and provides meals and transit passes during the school week. It also offers a safe summer place.

“Breakthrough might seem relatively small compared to some organizations that serve 3,000 kids, but we provide what I call end-to-end support for the students.” — Michelle Palmer

That’s the original reason Marissa Tice allowed Neveah, the oldest of her four children, to go to the program the summer after 6th grade. (Finding summer camps and safe spaces for four children during the summer is a lot, Tice says.) Neveah was always a good student, but Tice says she never imagined her daughter would attend a highly-regarded private high school. She’s a big fan of the program now.

“I think it helped her stay enthusiastic about learning,” Tice says “She was always a motivated kid, but I think [Breakthrough] helped keep the thrill and enthusiasm going.”

The undergraduate Breakthrough volunteer teachers are close enough in age to their students to become “near peers,” a trusted older person who is a friend and a mentor. Neveah wasn’t taught by Banks, but she enthusiastically talked about her instructor, Kayla. “She’s always so welcoming to everybody, so sweet, Neveah says.”

Marissa Tice says that the fact Banks graduated from an HBCU and serves as a role model thrills her.

“I like that Breakthrough exposes kids to a more professional way of life,” says Tice, who didn’t attend college and works as a cosmetologist. “The program exposed me to what’s possible, big picture, big thinking.”

Neveah, who was 10 when she decided on a law career, agrees.

“I can go from lawyer to Supreme Court to the presidency,” Neveah says. “My dreams are unlimited.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Michelle Palmer’s title. She is executive director of Breakthrough.

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