Blog

In a review of reading assessments this past spring by Go Public Schools, Oakland Academy of Knowledge was a top 10 school accelerating literacy growth for all students, and top 3 for Black students. We chatted with Oakland Academy of Knowledge Principal Nikki Williams and Community Schools Manager Leslye Salinas to learn some of the strategies they’re using to set kids and families up for success in the new 2023-2024 school year.

“A lot of our work has been around family engagement, said Williams. “And one of the big things in terms of family engagement that we’re focusing on this upcoming year is family and student empowerment, so that our families and our students are active decision makers in the work that we’re doing for this year. When we think about starting out the school year, the goal is really to have a welcoming and empowering experience for families. 

Here are six ways in which Oakland Academy of Knowledge is supporting family engagement:

1. Welcoming and Empowering Experience: Williams highlights the importance of creating a welcoming and empowering experience for families, both new and returning. The school’s focus is on effective communication, ensuring that families are well-informed about key dates, events, and opportunities available. They have developed family registration folders that provide essential information, calendars, and resources for families to access, both physically and digitally, and they make sure QR codes for important information are posted near the doors so that parents don’t have to look around or ask for it. 
2. Wise Wednesdays for Family Engagement: To bridge the gap between school and home literacy practices, the school will be introducing “Wise Wednesdays.” This initiative allows families to participate in targeted support sessions led by teachers. These monthly sessions will educate families about literacy practices that can be implemented at home, creating a collaborative learning environment where families and educators work together to support student growth. 
3. Books for All Students: “The first thing that we’re doing is making sure that students have access to books at home,” said Williams. “So as part of our registration, we have books available for families to take home so that kids have robust libraries at home.” 
4. Teacher-Family Communication and Engagement: Oakland Academy of Knowledge places a strong emphasis on consistent teacher-family communication. Teachers commit to maintaining consistent and meaningful communication with families. This includes sharing data-driven insights and progress updates, while also providing families with actionable ways to support their children’s literacy development at home. SIPPS® is the foundational literacy program at the school, so it’s important for teachers to let parents and caregivers know when students have passed a SIPPS mastery test, and which sight words they’re working on.”Families want their kids to learn and be successful – that’s a non negotiable. And so our job is to help them understand and support them in supporting their kids to make that happen,” Williams said.
5. Grounding learning in social justice and ethnic studies: while they’re proud of having a strong literacy program, the OAK leaders also want to emphasize that they do the work through a lens of social justice and ethnic studies. They think about making the literacy program responsive to not just the academic needs of students, but also that they see themselves represented, that they’re able to engage in activities that really promote their own self awareness and confidence. That includes reading culturally affirming books, and having ethnic studies blocks built into the curriculum.
   “We want to prepare our students to be change agents in the world, with understandings of themselves, the community, and systems of oppression so they can really go out and make amazing stuff happen for their communities,” said Williams.