The good news for other districts is that Oakland USD’s multi-pronged strategies are shared in the new “Teachers and Tutors Together” report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a think tank based at Arizona State University. First of all, researchers doubted that any districts could make adequate progress on literacy using the traditional classroom model of one adult trying to get 25 to 30 caught up. Here are a few key findings:

Using paraprofessionals as early literacy tutors made more trained adults available to provide small-group literacy instruction. Without this support, Oakland USD’s students would not have gotten the help they needed, teachers and administrators told CRPE’s researchers.
Tutoring works best when tutors are “well-integrated into a coherent, school-wide approach to supporting literacy.” In Oakland USD, this comprised a districtwide foundational skills curriculum but researchers found that tutors and teachers needed to communicate more consistently about student progress.
Students who worked with tutors made larger gains than classmates who did not have access to small-group literacy instruction. The most substantial gains occurred in kindergarten.
Literacy gains made by tutored students varied dramatically—from a low of 79% of typical growth to a high of 188%.
Teachers, tutors, instructional coaches and school leaders reported that staffing and scheduling constraints hampered progress.
Pay also remained a critical obstacle to recruiting and retaining early literacy tutors, and maintaining their morale.

The linchpin of Oakland USD’s tutoring efforts is a partnership that trains community members to become early literacy tutors in high-needs schools. Oakland REACH's Literacy Liberator Model and Fellowship is a collaboration between the district and the nonprofit FluentSeeds, which provides tutors with training and feedback through regular observations and coaching sessions.

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This district figured out how a community can energize tutoring

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