| Welcome to 3 Days of Liberation! We’ve got so much good news to share from The Oakland REACH that we need three days to do it — I promise, you won’t want to miss any of these updates. On Day 1 of this series, I’m sharing a first look at new research, released today by The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), that shows students in Oakland who worked with tutors were more likely to make gains in literacy compared to their peers who lacked access to small group literacy instruction. Importantly, the report finds that our tutors — who we proudly call Liberators — helped students make “similar literacy gains as those who primarily received instruction from Oakland teachers.” This report is a big deal because it reinforces the promise of our Liberator Model to be a critical piece to building a cohesive, results-oriented literacy ecosystem. A reminder about our Liberator Model: Our Liberator Model upskills parents and caregivers to be paid tutors, providing high-dosage tutoring in some of the lowest-performing schools in Oakland. In 2023, we trained 46 parents and caregivers to build the skills needed to succeed in schools. This model is unique because it creatively addresses five academic and socio-economic needs of both students and families: |
I came away from this new report with three big takeaways:
- The power of putting parents and caregivers into the game to win for their students: This is the REACH’s secret sauce. By investing in parents and caregivers to become paid tutors, the REACH is helping to fill a much-needed talent pipeline in the district. We’re taking parents and caregivers — whose impact is often sidelined and minimized — and putting them on the frontline of those solutions that get their children reading. By maximizing the role parents and caregivers can play in their child’s education, we’re hoping to reverse the decades-long trend of miseducation.
- A way to support teachers and mitigate burnout: We’re showing how to rethink the longstanding model that leaves one teacher responsible for the learning needs of 25 or more students without resources. That model doesn’t work for teachers, but it also doesn’t work for students. We see big opportunities if systems deepen integration of tutors and paraprofessionals into the school day — both for the adults who work in schools and the students who attend them.
- How to build effective long-term partnerships: Almost five years ago, our families told us that literacy was keeping them up at night. We listened, and stepped boldly into Oakland’s literacy ecosystem. We have won policies and launched the Liberator Model. We have learned so much. We understand that we have to be a nimble systems partner. We are now serving as an ecosystem leader to support better cohesion and alignment across all tiers of literacy instruction. We must be willing to change our “seat at the table” to have long-term impact and results.
I am so grateful to Accelerate for funding this research because I believe it’s so important to talk about results. I hope you’ll consider sharing the report with your community.
Stay tuned for two more updates this week! We hope you are encouraged to both optimize the power of parents to increase outcomes for their own children and children in their communities, and to be a flexible, yet bold partner building towards a sustainable literacy ecosystem.