This Philly teacher won a presidential honor, and will use it to keep spreading the gospel of math

Don’t say you’re not a math person in front of Jessica Tilli.

“I think so many students, especially as they get to middle school, have some ideas about who they are in the math classroom,” said Tilli, 38. “My job is to make every single child recognize that they are math people, that they can do math in innovative and creative ways — I love creating opportunities for students to discover that there is joy in mathematics.”

Tilli — a former classroom teacher who now works as a math curriculum specialist for the Philadelphia School District — recently received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, traveling to Washington to receive the U.S. government’s highest honor for members of the profession.

One of 102 teachers honored this spring, she was awarded $10,000 from the National Science Foundation and professional development opportunities with NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Department of Defense.

It was during Tilli’s 12 years at Meredith Elementary in South Philadelphia, teaching science and math to middle schoolers, that she first met Liam Goldrick. During his son’s fifth-grade year, his teacher, a beloved Meredith fixture, died suddenly, and Tilli stepped in to help run the class.

Two years later, when another teacher quit abruptly in October, Tilli, who was working as Meredith’s school-based math teacher leader, stepped in again to teach Goldrick’s son’s class.

She infused tough situations with fun and great skill, said Goldrick, and that is only one reason he nominated Tilli for the federal teaching prize.

“She really exemplifies the type of qualities parents want to see in an educator — she’s striving to grow and improve, she’s not resting on her laurels. She’s not using 20-year-old work sheets, she’s on the cusp,” said Goldrick, who works in education policy and communications. “She’s trying to take what we know from instructional research and science and embed that into professional learning and development but also into her own learning.”

Tilli, who has worked in the district curriculum office since 2020, was never the kind of teacher who embraced the “don’t smile until Christmas” philosophy.

“My goal first is to build relationships,” she said. “Through relationships, I can get any child to learn math and find the joy in it.”

She also worked as a mentor and coach with Students Run Philly Style, a nonprofit that engages and empowers young people through running.

Ask Tilli about her time in the classroom and she lights up. Even middle schoolers had been known to play in her class, sorting Alpha-Bits cereal to find the probability of finding an A, learning proportions with Skittles.

“Every day in my mind was a challenge to get students touching, engaged with the math. I think that’s why my students did so well,” said Tilli.

And she prided herself in finding innovative ways to help children love math. Tilli got former Phillies manager Joe Girardi, who has an engineering degree, to teach alongside her a math lesson to Meredith students.

Now, in her work as a specialist, Tilli leads a team of teachers in developing a math curriculum that will debut in Philadelphia schools this fall. Her work also includes creating and delivering professional development and spending time inside schools helping administrators make sure teachers have all they need to provide high-quality math instruction.

Tilli believes firmly in pushing and prioritizing early math skills as a pathway to equity and access. (In Philadelphia’s move to overhaul its criteria for magnet-school admissions last year, the importance of this point was underscored — only children from a handful of schools, including Meredith, qualified for admissions to Masterman, one of the city’s top schools, because most district schools had not offered Algebra I to all eighth graders.)

“The path to accessing higher-level math has everything to do with opportunities at the youngest ages, period,” said Tilli. “There’s a good body of research that talks about how by the age of 6, you can predict with pretty high accuracy based on your answers to number sense questions, what will happen later on for a child.”

Philadelphia schools have been part of Tilli’s life since before she was born.

When her mother, Rhonda Lauer, was pregnant with Tilli, she was principal of what is now Fanny Jackson Coppin Elementary in South Philadelphia. Lauer was eventually associate superintendent under David Hornbeck. Tilli’s grandfather, Lionel Lauer, was associate superintendent under Constance Clayton; although she grew up in New Jersey, Tilli visited district schools and events regularly. It follows that her boys, 6 and 8, will have that same experience via their mom.

“My heart is in Philadelphia,” she said.

These days, Tilli is juggling her work with courses that will eventually yield a doctorate in educational leadership from Temple University. The goal is to continue serving Philadelphia students.

And she’s still pinching herself over the federal honor. Tilli experienced three days of celebration and professional development, but she’s most excited for what’s to come — once educators become presidential awardees, they’re tapped for other opportunities, like speaking engagements.

“This is just the beginning,” said Tilli. “I’m excited at all the possibilities.”