1:1 Reading Intervention: A Key to Literacy Success in Oakland Schools

Educators in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) work tirelessly to advance literacy skills for their students. The district proudly represents a culturally and linguistically diverse community, and is committed to providing quality education for all its students. However, it's an uphill battle to break the cycle of poor academic achievement amidst teacher shortages and budget cuts. Literacy specialists are stretched thin, and classroom teachers aren’t able to provide the individualized support that students who are very behind need.

Experts have long known that low literacy rates affect children beyond the classroom. Students with poor literacy skills face barriers to social and economic opportunities critical to their development—a report by Eat. Learn. Play, Advanced Literacy Efforts in Oakland: Perspective from the Field, showed that one in three OUSD students entering grade four were reading three grades below their grade level. 

OUSD and its partners rose to the challenge. Their efforts have led to an extraordinary, city-wide push to ensure literacy proficiency for all grade three students through targeted, tiered reading intervention. The school district collaborated with the Oakland Literacy Coalition, Oakland REACH, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and Eat. Learn. Play. to implement the Strong Readers Initiative. 

As part of the 2023 pilot program, Hoot Reading was chosen as one of three literacy tutoring providers to bring 1:1 reading tutoring into the school day, as a Tier 3 reading intervention. We started with 168 students at six OUSD elementary schools. The successful pilot led to an expansion in the 2024-25 school year, with Hoot Reading now providing  1:1 reading intervention to 490 students at ten elementary schools. This groundbreaking literacy initiative is still in its early stages—a generous funding addition from Eat. Learn. Play. will invest $25 million in the program over the next five years, bringing reading tutoring to approximately 10,000 students.  

OUSD literacy experts understand the value of Hoot’s structured online tutoring, which addresses critical skill gaps for struggling readers and English language learners. Students build safe and supportive relationships with their reading tutors, who are all experienced classroom teachers who provide expert reading intervention to meet their individual learning needs. 

We’re incredibly proud and grateful to be part of this amazing collaboration between OUSD and Eat. Learn. Play. This short film features educators at OUSD speaking about the impact Hoot Reading’s 1:1 online tutoring has had on their students. They trust us to deliver high-quality literacy tutoring that moves struggling readers forward. We’re excited to continue changing children’s lives through literacy,  one transformational partnership at a time.

Learn more about Hoot’s personalized literacy tutoring services and how it can make a difference in your school or district.