Results & Impact

Oakland Starting Smart and Strong is made up of community groups, early childhood educators, school district and city leaders, all connected by our shared commitment to creating a strong foundation for Oakland’s youngest children.

​We recognize that greater, more lasting progress is possible when we coordinate our efforts and work together across sectors on a clearly defined goal.

Our collective impact work is divided into four pillars:

• Improving quality in formal early childhood education
• Supporting informal caregivers (family, friends and neighbors)
• Healthy development
• Improving Oakland's early childhood system

We have committed to results-based accountability, and we’re developing indicators to clearly measure the impact of our work.
​
On these pages, we celebrate our successes on the path towards high-quality early care and learning for all.

---

2020 Data Placemat

This data snapshot, compiled by Engage R+D, displays measurable outcomes from coaching and trauma-informed practices for Oakland children, , and shows growth in Oakland’s early learning system.

2020 Year in Review

While 2020 was a challenging year, OSSS worked to help meet the needs of our community in a time of crisis and made gains in reaching our long-term goals. We are grateful for the resilience, hard work, and innovation of our community members, partners and funders. Please take a moment to look back at what we were able to collaboratively achieve in our OSSS 2020 Year in Review.

Report on Accomplishments - Fall 2019

​From improving quality in formal early childhood education to supporting family, friend, and neighbor caregivers; from increasing the number of developmental screenings to strengthening Oakland's early childhood system, there's a lot to celebrate! 

Oakland Starting Smart and Strong recently released a report on accomplishments in these four areas. Read below for how we are making progress on our benchmarks of success.

May 2019

Coaching in Early Learning Classrooms

Great news! As part of Oakland Starting Smart and Strong, OUSD partnered with the New Teacher Center (NTC) to provide educators with site-based differential coaching on best practices to support early childhood development. Engage R+D, a research and evaluation firm, studied how this coaching in OUSD early learning classrooms contributed to improvements in classroom quality, teaching quality and child development. In a recent report “Key Findings: Oakland Retrospective Study,” Engage R+D concludes that coaching has contributed to statistically significant improved outcomes for children, teachers and the quality of the sites.