The Oakland REACH’s High-Quality Tutoring Model Replicates Nationally, Announces Partnership with Rocky Mountain Prep

The Oakland REACH announced today the first-ever national replication of its Liberator Model in partnership with Rocky Mountain Prep, a network of public charter schools serving families in the Denver metro area. The Liberator Model upskills parents and caregivers to be paid literacy and math tutors, providing high-dosage tutoring to rapidly accelerate reading proficiency and improve learning outcomes for students. 

A Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) study of the model found that “early literacy tutors allowed schools to offer significantly more differentiated literacy instruction, enabling educators to better tailor instruction to student needs” and that tutored students made literacy gains from a low of 79% to a high of 188% of typical growth. Through the Liberator Model, REACH has supported the training and retention of around 135 tutors across 38 schools in Oakland. 

Rocky Mountain Prep has launched a Denver and Aurora-based version of the Liberator Model, recently hiring 22 of their parents to be full-time paid literacy tutors called “PEAK Family Tutors.” These tutors will participate in the PEAK Family Institute, modeled after REACH’s Liberator Fellowship, where they will be trained as high-dosage literacy tutors before being deployed to classrooms in February. 

“The literacy crisis is a nationwide problem and therefore, it needs a nationwide solution,” said Lakisha Young, founder and CEO of The Oakland REACH. “Once we proved that the Liberator Model could improve academic outcomes for students in Oakland, it was clear that we needed to scale the solution to match the size of the problem. More students in Denver and Aurora will discover a lifelong love of reading because of the Liberator Model, and I’m grateful for the leadership and partnership of the team at Rocky Mountain Prep for bringing our model to their community.” 

"Literacy opens the doors to opportunity for the students we serve, and there’s no better way to foster a love of learning than by empowering families to play a central role in their kids’ learning journeys,” said Tricia Noyola, CEO of Rocky Mountain Prep. “That’s why we’re thrilled to launch PEAK Family Tutors – a transformative program that will improve literacy outcomes and offer career pathways for Denver families by hiring our students’ very own parents and caregivers as full-time tutors. Seeing the love and dedication that our family tutors bring to the classroom is simply awe-inspiring. We are grateful to partner with The Oakland REACH to bring their innovative model to Denver and to reimagine how school communities can unite to uplift one another, share knowledge, and address students’ educational needs.”

RMP’s Family Institute will run from January 7th to February 10th. PEAK Family Tutors will have their first day in classrooms on February 11th, marking the first launch of the Liberator Model outside of Oakland.

To check out this work in action, watch The Oakland REACH’s “Day in the Life of a Literacy Liberator” video. To learn more about bringing the Liberator Model to your city, email rwi@oaklandreach.org.

The Oakland REACH Liberator Fellowship, Fall 2023

Rocky Mountain Prep’s PEAK Family Institute, January 2025