Leading on Literacy: How We’re Ensuring Strong Readers by the Third Grade

I’ve always loved to read and autobiographies are the kinds of books I have recently found myself reaching for. I take comfort in reading about those that came before me, learning from their mistakes and gaining insight from their successes. One of my favorites is Born to Rebel, An Autobiography by Benjamin E. Mays. Mays, a former president of Morehouse College, is credited with laying the foundation for the civil rights movement and served as a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., among others. His words inspire me and remind me to always act with purpose and strive for better educational outcomes for all.

In OUSD, no work that we do is more important than making sure that our youngest students learn how to read and write. This is because early literacy isn’t just about academic success or lifelong learning. It’s so much more than that. Literacy can open doors for our young people; it can change their lives. Literacy is a social justice issue, a moral imperative. Each and every student in Oakland deserves to be literate.

That’s why we committed to accelerating citywide efforts to guarantee literacy for all third graders when we launched the Strategic Plan in 2021, and that’s why we continue investing in early literacy across the district today.

Last week, we joined more than 100 people and community partners at a quarterly Literacy Community Convening. It was an opportunity to share our progress, provide updates on implementation, and hear feedback from the community about our literacy work. Although it’s early in the 2025-26 school year, we are starting on the right track thanks to solid investments in professional development and community partnerships over the summer, and I’m excited for what’s to come.

Read on to learn more about this crucial work.

In community,

Denise Saddler
Superintendent

Professional Development

Our district is often at the forefront of innovation and bringing evidence-based practices to our classroom learning environments. In OUSD, we continue to provide professional learning opportunities for all of our K-5th grade teachers to deepen their instructional skills when it comes to teaching literacy. We celebrate our teachers and leaders for taking on professional development and leaning into new strategies and curriculum. Together, we are making great strides.

• This year, we are incorporating the updated EL Education curriculum into our K-5 English Only programs which includes a Designated English Language Development (ELD) component called Unlock ELD. The Unlock ELD component developed out of a collaboration between OUSD and EL Education, and our own staff and teachers supported the lesson design at the foundational stages of development. The launch of Unlock ELD enables our teachers to better serve our English Language Learners with learning opportunities that directly teach them about how the English Language works within the context of the theme that they are studying, texts that they are reading, and writing tasks that they are working towards.
   

• Our dual language teachers recently gathered to learn about the latest research on teaching students to read and write in two languages. Teachers also had the opportunity to dig into the Benchmark Foundational Skills component for Spanish and SIPPS for English. Dual Language teachers and leaders gained a deeper understanding of the what, why, and how of teaching biliteracy to focus on grade-level foundational skills instruction for ALL students.
   

• Teams of 3rd and 4th grade teachers had a unique opportunity this summer to plan out enhanced content and hands-on experiences for students, in collaboration with local partners. This work is an EL Education vision that OUSD is proud to be taking on in partnership with incredible organizations here in Oakland.
  
  Third Grade teachers from Garfield, Acorn Woodland, Joaquin Miller, La Escuelita, and Piedmont Avenue elementary schools worked with the Executive Director of Things That Creep to enhance the 3rd Grade module, “The Wonderful World of Frogs.” They designed activities for students to learn about, encounter, and advocate for amphibians local to Oakland as part of their educational experience.
   
  
  Fourth Grade teachers from Allendale, Acorn Woodland, Glenview, Franklin, Chabot, Burckhalter, Redwood Heights, La Escuelita, and Sequoia immersed themselves in a poetry workshop at Chapter 510 & and Department of Make / Believe to prepare to enhance the 4th Grade Module “Poetic Forms and Inspiring Minds” with more hands-on language and poetry play.
   

• Our Literacy Liberators have also been hard at work, having recently engaged in two day-long professional learning sessions to help them deepen their understanding of evidence-based literacy instruction. They’ll continue to have opportunities to practice their craft throughout the year in monthly Professional Learning Communities in which they will also review student literacy data and make adjustments to instruction.
  
  This is the ninth year we have centrally funded Early Literacy tutors for sites so that leaders and teachers have additional staffing to support differentiated foundational skill instructional opportunities for students. Our tutors are incredible leaders with rich, diverse backgrounds, many of whom are parents of current or former district students, plus several who were once our students themselves! We are excited to see the impact of our 120 tutors on our students’ literacy progress this school year.

Adopting and Implementing Tier 1 Foundational Skill Curriculum: UFLI

In the spring of 2025, the Board of Education adopted University of Florida Literary Institute (UFLI) Foundations as our tier 1 Foundational Skills Curriculum in our classes taught in English. UFLI Foundations is a phonics program designed to ensure that all students develop the critical foundational skills necessary for reading success in Kinder through 2nd grade. The structured approach of UFLI aligns with our district's Language and Literacy Framework and our overall vision for literacy excellence, and our teachers and leaders led the way by implementing a rigorous multi-year process that gave us strong data to inform the adoption of this program.

We have trained more than 500 teachers and leaders on the new UFLI curriculum so far, and UFLI will be implemented in all of our classes taught in English this school year for their foundational reading skill curriculum.

Now, two months into the school year, we are seeing the fruits of that labor and the impact of our strong professional learning as we walk classrooms and see students engaged in their whole-class UFLI lessons.

Strengthened Literacy Tiered Supports

As part of our commitment to improving tiered literacy supports, we are thrilled to be expanding our one-to-one tutoring to all 50 elementary schools through our partnership with Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation. Over the past two years, we have piloted this effort while using third-party evaluation to understand the efficacy of the programming and impact on student achievement. We now are offering a number of one-to-one tutoring slots to each elementary school to support students who need tailored literacy intervention.

Students who are in need of additional reading support to master foundational literacy skills, as determined by our screening tools (i-Ready and DIBELS/Lectura), receive literacy tutoring. On top of one-to-one tutoring allocations through OpenLiteracy or Ignite, most of our elementary schools also have Early Literacy Tutors who support students with small-group literacy instruction focused on foundational skills. As mentioned above, we have approximately 120 tutors in OUSD elementary and middle schools working hard to ensure students get the differentiated support necessary to make literacy progress. Our tutors themselves receive monthly professional learning in groups as well as individual coaching to improve their instruction. As part of our tiered literacy support system, we also include frequent monitoring of student progress.

Coming this Spring: The Third Annual OUSD LitFest

OUSD Lit Fest is our celebration of literacy which began in 2024 and included 25 elementary schools and 400 members of the Oakland community. In year two, it blossomed into an extraordinary gathering of 900 community members from 35 elementary schools.

At each event, students displayed their remarkable writing showing the successes from schools across the city. Dozens of students shared in “open mic” spaces, still others read books in the garden with family members, or played reading games with our partners from the Oakland Public Library and Collaborative Classroom. All children received free books, donated by the Oakland Literacy Coalition, and families had the opportunity to learn from the Early Literacy Tutors, librarians, and English Language Learner & Multilingual Achievement Team.

This year, we are working to include all elementary schools, further expanding this incredible communal celebration with additional opportunities to showcase students’ reading and writing, and include new experiential components for student and family participation. Stay tuned!