Education

The Rainin Foundation believes every Oakland child should have the literacy skills to communicate, learn and thrive. We support early childhood education because these years make a big difference in a child’s life. Children learn at home, in the classroom and in the community. At the heart of our work are three strategies that will lead to improved outcomes for children: 

1. Literacy Programs: Increase proven literacy programs that explicitly and systematically support decoding, encoding and translanguaging.
2. Literacy Practices: Improve educators’ approach to Structured Literacy, translanguaging and equitable, culturally connected practices.
3. Literacy Partnerships: Nurture families’ capacity to engage in literacy development and strengthen coalitions that seek to improve conditions for language and literacy attainment.  

We ground our work in community wisdom and collaborate with families, educators, community organizations and funders so that Oakland’s youngest learners reach their full potential.