With a holistic view of what it takes for a child to succeed in school and in life, our work in the Oakland community grew in 2016, establishing several programs and exploring new strategies to support young learners. We continued to realize the results of our early groundwork. From our core initiatives to research and grantmaking, the evidence is clear: We are making an impact on literacy and school readiness for Oakland’s children.

With striking differences in the typical language experiences of young children, Oakland preschoolers present some of the largest known disparities in terms of vocabulary; 43% score in the bottom tenth percentile nationally for productive vocabulary. The Rainin Foundation is compelled to help every Oakland child be ready for kindergarten and reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade, and we’re making progress. After one year in a SEEDS of Learning classroom, only three percent of kids are left below targets for productive vocabulary.

We don’t claim to have all the answers—we believe in asking meaningful questions, engaging the best partners, and using evidence-based practices and data. We collaborate with teachers and families, and we work alongside top thought-leaders and researchers in the field so that we can support the best possible early childhood experiences.

The Foundation has funded and implemented SEEDS of Learning, a relationship-based professional development program that provides Oakland teachers and parents with strategies for building social, emotional, language, and literacy skills in young children. In 2014-2015, our first year, we saw impressive results in our partner preschool and transitional kindergarten classrooms, but we acknowledged that data from just one year may not indicate proof of consistent results. The second year, the results were even more positive—with almost every child entering kindergarten with key language and literacy skills. “We are planting the seeds of promising practices,” said Jennifer Rainin, PhD, Rainin Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer. “Through this rigorous process of seeing what takes root, we will be able to spread effective practices to as many children as possible.”

In 2016-2017, we are building on everything we learned in our first two years of SEEDS. We have expanded to teachers in 72 SEEDS classrooms, where we are seeing solid, remarkable results. This work involves collaborating closely with the school district, several charter management organizations, and independent charter schools. Working hand-in-hand with teachers, our team spends a significant time in classrooms observing, helping, and collecting data on students. We are in it together. And we give teachers all the tools they need to accomplish their work—monthly training, coaching, books, vocabulary cards, CDs, tools for helping children who aren’t yet progressing, and more.

We have increased investments in elementary schools to continue accelerating progress for our preschool and transitional kindergarten children. Fifteen elementary schools received grants in 2016 in our new Early Elementary Literacy cohort to continue quality instruction and interaction with children in kindergarten and first grade. We believe that when we build children’s skills—including their social-emotional skills and love of learning—over multiple years, our schools will be transformed. Not only are we helping teachers, principals, and administrators to provide the most effective instruction, but we are also giving Oakland’s kids a better chance of success in school—and, most importantly, in life. Thank you to all the educators learning with us in this first year!

From our extensive research, we have learned a great deal about the specific skills that are predictive of later school success, but we didn’t know how this research might—or might not—specifically apply to Oakland children. We wanted to better understand local families’ experiences and needs. So, we partnered with NORC, an independent research institution at the University of Chicago, to complete an extensive, first-of-its-kind survey of Oakland parents. In 2016, we presented preliminary data to our community partners and will use it to strategize more effective ways of engaging families and supporting their dreams and vision for their children. Learn more about our Household Survey.

Our Education grants support strategies to reduce early disparities in language and literacy development, working toward our goals of enriching adult-child relationships, promoting everyday literacy-rich experiences, and fostering grade-level reading.

Without ongoing opportunities to learn, kids can lose six months of learning over the summer. Our grantee, Springboard Collaborative, has found a way to reverse this trend and achieve a three-month reading gain for students. After a successful pilot in 2015, we supported bringing their five-week program to 16 Oakland schools last summer. In addition to teacher professional development and coaching, the program provides daily reading instruction to children while their parents benefit from weekly workshops and home visits to help them support reading at home. This strong family engagement component helps teachers build warm, collaborative relationships with families.