Literacy is a powerful key that opens doors to knowledge and possibility. The Kenneth Rainin Foundation believes that all Oakland children should have the literacy skills to communicate, learn and thrive by third grade. In 2023, Foundation grantees centered families and communities, mentored educators and embraced evidenced-based practices to help children become confident, capable and joyful learners.

In September, the Rainin Foundation welcomed Education Program Officer, Nicole Kendrick. Nicole brings a deep commitment to early childhood education and is driven to remove barriers contributing to inequitable outcomes for underserved students. Under the leadership of Dana Cilono, our Education Team continued to invest in community-led solutions that support all Oakland children learning.

Families bring essential knowledge, abilities and aspirations that are fundamental to children’s education. Oakland’s Black- and Brown-led advocacy organizations are models for how families enhance literacy instruction and learning in schools. The Oakland REACH trained parents and caregivers to become Literacy Liberators and provide high-dosage tutoring to students in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). This approach is accelerating student learning. 3Ls Academy engages families in every level of their programmatic work. In four schools in Oakland’s Sobrante Park, their Lit Lab Academy programs are improving instruction and student outcomes through family and neighbor partnerships, targeted after-school interventions and professional development.

Our grantees are redefining what’s possible when families are seen and supported as leaders. High Expectations addresses biases and creates a school culture where all families feel welcomed and valued by teachers. Our funding supported capacity building opportunities to strengthen those relationships and help families use data to advocate for high-quality education. First-time grantee Families in Action elevates families’ aspirations for their children and helps schools become better partners with them. Their signature Family Literacy Leadership Institute brings parents and teachers together to build trust and mutuality. Families also gain visibility and knowledge about the classroom by observing teachers and assessing if they are meeting standards.

Retaining the adults who teach our children is necessary for student achievement. Our grantees were important partners in cultivating supportive school cultures and learning environments, and sustaining the mental health of teachers. The Teaching Well improves educator retention by promoting human-centered policies and facilitating decolonized trauma healing at seven Oakland schools. Their equity-centered approach helps foster self and collective wellness, which in turn improves child learning. Oakland Starting Smart and Strong nurtures a supportive and professional learning community for early care providers through the Early Learning Symposium along with trainings and facilitated conversations.

Grantees are working together to provide equitable access to proven practices that are grounded in the science of reading. Literacy advocate FULCRUM partnered with Ignite! Reading to bring highly trained virtual tutors to more Oakland students. Tutors provide 15 minutes of daily instruction, which is doubling students’ expected reading growth. The program is easy for teachers to implement and helps relieve urgent staffing challenges at schools.

FluentSeeds also partnered with Oakland Unified School District, Education for Change and The Oakland Reach to boost literacy outcomes through their signature coaching and training in evidence-based instruction. Pre-kindergarten through second grade teachers, tutors and childcare providers learned how to deepen students’ foundational literacy skills. FluentSeeds enhanced its proven Response to Intervention infrastructure to measure the impact of their literacy interventions. They confirmed that educators from nontraditional pathways, such as community-based certification or mentorship programs, can be as effective as credentialed teachers. FluentSeeds shows us how students benefit when an evidence-based program is intentional about implementation, data collection and capacity-building.

Supporting students to become confident, capable readers also requires an interdependent mix of partners working in concert to address varied needs. Our grantees’ work illustrates the promise of strengthening and aligning the early learning ecosystem. Steeped in a deep understanding of Oakland’s literacy gaps and the science of reading, FULCRUM works relentlessly to promote evidence-based instruction. Their presentations and conversations are inspiring a movement of state and school system leaders, educators, community organizations and parents to advocate for proven practices that teach children to read.

The Oakland Literacy Coalition is critical to citywide literacy collaborations, ensuring that literacy efforts work synergistically and are aligned to the science of reading. Our funding supported the development of their three-year strategic roadmap, which aims to strengthen the literacy ecosystem and enable the conditions for all students to learn and grow.

To build a literacy ecosystem that supports multilingual learners, the Foundation joined other funders in the Emerging Bilingual Collaborative. In California, 60% of children from birth to five years old and 19% of K-12 students are multilingual learners. Our grant contributes to a pooled fund to drive multilingual priorities supporting students, families and educators across three geographic areas of California, including Oakland.

When our relationships with grantees are grounded in trust, interdependence and solidarity, we shift power to the communities we serve. We improved our grantmaking practices to reduce burdens for grant seekers and grantees in our application and reporting requirements. In 2023, the Oakland Literacy Coalition facilitated a funder roundtable that catalyzed new insights about building trusting relationships. Nonprofits emphasized the need for funders to show up and learn with grantees, and to ensure that listening is followed by action.

These insights affirmed our belief that listening and learning are essential to strengthening our grantmaking strategies and improving our practices. In 2020-2021, our Community Strategy Council informed shifts in our strategies to help to address systemic barriers to learning. Their wisdom elevated the importance of funding approaches that are created by and for the communities we support. This year, we gathered stakeholder feedback and used our equity-driven evaluation framework to assess our strategies and how they are impacting student outcomes. We remain committed to ensuring all Oakland children receive a high-quality education and look forward to sharing more bright spots and learnings in 2024.

EDUCATION PROGRAM

Our grantmaking supports equitable literacy approaches in partnership with underserved communities to ensure that all Oakland children have the literacy skills to communicate, learn and thrive by the beginning of third grade. We are honored to partner with these organizations. Learn more about the 2023 Education Program grant recipients.

RESPONSE FUND

This discretionary fund supports exceptional and emerging opportunities that will have an outsized impact and move us closer toward our vision of all Oakland children reading at or above grade level, no one suffering from Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Bay Area artists thriving.