Half a Year of Learning in Two and a Half Months
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, The Oakland REACH is reflecting on his legacy and the work still to do to ensure all Black and Brown families are empowered to demand — and receive — a high-quality education for their children. A day of service in his memory is a great start, but we need a commitment to deliver for students 365 days a year (whether schools are meeting in person or remotely).
And that’s exactly what The Oakland REACH is doing. We can’t afford to sit in chaos, and we refuse to let crises stop us from moving forward and delivering results. While the pandemic, school closures, and sickouts dominate the conversation, here’s what The REACH has been up to:
We supported 250 students enrolled in OUSD virtual school, Sojourner Truth, in grades K-3. Students were provided daily literacy lessons from our team of highly skilled and committed Literacy Liberators, many of whom are mamas and aunties of kids in OUSD schools.
We delivered results: Students demonstrated significant growth from October (the start of tutoring) to December, mastering on average HALF A YEAR’s worth of reading lessons in just 2.5 months for students who attended at least 50% of the sessions.
This is a huge achievement. As we know, many of these students started out behind grade level — and through our high-dosage tutoring, 3 days a week, we accelerated their learning.
In the REACH End of Year Survey, the 60 families with children in literacy tutoring showed overwhelming satisfaction with the tutoring their children received through REACH: 91.7% of families expressed that they were either “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” with literacy tutoring, with the majority of families saying the latter.
And we’re doing this all while virtual!
“The sky may be falling, but it ain’t gonna fall on our babies,” said Lakisha Young. “We’re going bigger and bolder because we know that, if you want to get kids reading, you’ve got to go all in and really commit to it.”
And this is just the beginning: The REACH is partnering with OUSD and Fluent Seeds to help recruit, train, and support a core of literacy tutors so every K-2 student in Oakland's heartlands has access to high dosage literacy tutoring.
If you, or someone you know, wants to learn more about becoming a literacy tutor, please email ousdhubs@oaklandreach.org. We want to connect to committed community members from across the Bay Area, and especially those from our most underserved neighborhoods who are committed to helping all our babies become lifelong readers.
“This is what a truly strategic and systematic approach to reading looks like,” added Young. “If you want to deliver for Black and Brown kids, go beyond recognizing the holiday this Monday and learn more about how to liberate all students through literacy.”