Lakisha Young is Founder & CEO of The Oakland REACH. In 2019, The REACH had its first policy win, The Opportunity Ticket, which gives higher enrollment preference to the most vulnerable students. Lakisha then launched Literacy for All, a campaign to increase the literacy of the whole family. This work laid the groundwork for the Family Hub, which is often highlighted as a model of the programming districts should be investing in right now. Lakisha is a respected national voice on parent advocacy — featured on CNN, NPR, East Bay Times and more — and regularly provides consultation to other cities.
At CRPE, Lakisha is writing on the opportunities and barriers of shifting power to family and student communities in the public education system, building off her work as a national leader driving community-based change in Oakland. She will also coach district and community leaders in strategies to create greater opportunity for family and student voice and power in their work.
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This past November was a dream come true for The Oakland REACH—and for me as a leader. For two days, leaders from Rochester, Birmingham, New Orleans, Greenville, Jacksonville, Providence, Boston, and San Francisco, Richmond, and Oakland, CA, gathered together for our first-ever REACH Way Institute (RWI).
Lakisha Young writes about building pathways for minoritized students to access higher-performing schools when their current schools were closed during the pandemic.
Don’t Just Engage Families: Liberate Them
I set out to reflect on parent engagement as we settled into another school year in the U.S. where 84% of Black eighth-graders lack proficiency in reading.