Parent Grade Leads: Meet Angela
A Story From Our 2025 Annual Report
“I feel like a part of the school and the community.”
Angela Jimenez, 5K and 5th Grade Lead
Families across Racine Unified School District bring deep commitment, cultural knowledge, and a desire to support their children’s success. Over the past five years, Higher Expectations has partnered with the district to strengthen instructional practices, and one truth has become increasingly clear: when families and schools work together, students thrive. Parents are eager to engage, and when given meaningful opportunities to understand classroom goals and connect learning between home and school, they become powerful drivers of student growth.
At the same time, the district continues to face persistent academic gaps—only 27% of third graders read at grade level and just 19% of eighth graders meet math benchmarks. Breaks in instruction widen these gaps, and many families navigate out-of-school support systems that were not designed with their realities in mind and new instructional models like the science of reading. Addressing these challenges requires more than strong teaching alone; it requires bringing families into the work as true partners.
In 2024, Higher Expectations launched Parent Grade Leads, or PGLs, at Knapp Elementary. Angela Jimenez, serves as one of four PGLs for kindergarten and fifth grade. When asked what a PGL is, her answer is straightforward: “A parent who helps other parents.”
Parent Grade Leads host Lunch & Learns each semester, where families join their child’s classroom for a meal, hear directly from our PGLs about classroom goals, and participate in hands-on activities that reinforce learning at home. Now with four trained PGLs at Knapp Elementary participating in the Parent Leadership Network, the program continues to grow.
“It’s been incredible to see this program expand and watch more parents step into leadership,” says Leanna Jones, Community Engagement Manager at Higher Expectations. “We’ve built real trust with school administrators, staff, and the district office.”
Compared to our pilot Lunch & Learn sessions in Spring 2025, attendance in Fall 2025 nearly tripled from just 26–40 percent of families during the pilot to 74–85 percent in our scaled program. Post‑event surveys continue to show strong enthusiasm, with 94100 percent of participating families reporting high engagement and interest in future opportunities. Parents aren’t just showing up— they’re asking for more.
We are also collecting data to understand how Lunch & Learns influence student attendance and office referrals (students being sent to the office for behavioral issues), both of which are closely linked to improved academic outcomes. We look forward to scaling to other schools in Racine and hope to serve as a model for family engagement across Wisconsin and the StriveTogether network.
Liked this story? Read the rest of our 2025 Annual Report here!