Teachers and tutors together: - Reimagining literacy instruction in Oakland Introduction

The Literacy Liberator fellowship aimed to equip parents and caregivers with the mindsets, skills and support they needed to succeed in the tutor role—far exceeding the conventional goals and methods for training tutors and other paraprofessionals. [...] One said, “I know that the teachers and the tutors teaching [SIPPS], in order to be successful, have to get to a level of quality, and you don’t get to a level of quality on your own, you get to a level of quality the more you understand the program, the more you feel supported in the program, and supported in the work.” 11 CENTER ON REINVENTING PUBLIC EDUCATION — JULY 2023 Figure 4. [...] The Oakland REACH and FluentSeeds helped schools tap new talent pipelines to address tutor vacancies In the 2022-2023 school year, The Oakland REACH and FluentSeeds partnered with OUSD to address a key challenge: recruitment and retention of tutors who were working in some of the hardest-to-staff schools in the district. [...] One local advocate noted that REACH worked to highlight the “equity implications” of the literacy tutor position and the need to be “really explicit about the support that tutors need as Black and Brown people in these buildings.” Of the 16 fellowship participants, 11 ultimately became early literacy tutors in OUSD in the 2022-23 school year. [...] The Oakland REACH and FluentSeeds’ approach to supporting Oakland tutors shows the value in capitalizing on untapped pools of talent in the community and supporting them to develop the mindsets and skills necessary to become educators.