Around the country, only 17 percent of Black fourth graders read proficiently. For eighth graders, that number drops to 16 percent. To put it shortly, there’s a literacy crisis.
Aware of these challenges, bestselling author Ayesha Curry and NBA All-Star Steph Curry produced a short documentary film through their Eat. Learn. Play Foundation to highlight both the problems and potential solutions to avert the ongoing crisis in their adopted hometown of Oakland, California.
The new 20-minute film, From Struggle to Strength: Advancing Literacy in Oakland, follows three children in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and their struggles with reading comprehension. The documentary captures scenes of fifth grader Damiyah and first grade classmates Ariyah and Jude as they reach learning milestones.
The film also shows the power couple visiting Oakland classrooms, and it highlights their investment in the public school district to improve literacy rates at critical stages in children’s development. The documentary centers on the young students, and it includes interviews with school district officials, parents and educators. But as Ayesha Curry states in the film, “This is not a student problem.”
“The school systems have been a reflection of generations of systemic issues,” Steph Curry notes in the documentary. “If you can really get the kids at a baseline of grade appropriate reading levels and allow them to enjoy that part of their educational journey, we hope in the long run that it’ll pay off.”
“I think we should be alarmed,” pediatrician and social epidemiologist Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD, ScD, tells ESSENCE when asked about the national trends in children’s literacy. In California, Black children have had the lowest rates of reading proficiency for at least a decade.
Boynton-Jarrett highlights the larger factors that play into children’s literacy, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Who has the ability to support enrichment and provide timely support to their children if they are struggling in any way around their development? So then we begin to look at economic circumstances and the insufficiency of resources, perhaps within our public school systems, to provide more tailored supports for children,” she adds.
There is also what Boynton-Jarrett describes as “intergenerational adversity.” If children are “living in an environment [with] greater exposures to social adversities,…that impacts mental health and well-being, as well as the physical health of both parents and children. It impacts where parents can spend their time and attention.” These social adversities could range from violence in the community to insecure housing. “If you might be evicted, your attention gets spent trying to avoid losing a basic need,” she notes.
With challenges at home and inadequate enrichment outside of it, many Black children fall behind. The couple’s foundation funds literacy programs at elementary schools to help provide that support, and their focus on elementary-aged children is intentional: it’s usually by the third grade when it becomes apparent that a child has learning challenges, whether it’s dyslexia or other learning differences.
As Boynton-Jarrett shares with ESSENCE, it’s also a critical stage: Failing to intervene adequately at an early age can affect whether a child graduates from high school, and it can also be predictive of whether young adults enroll in college. “It can be an early marker of later outcomes,” which ultimately impact “economic and social mobility,” she states.
It’s an issue Steph and Ayesha addressed when they first announced that Eat. Learn. Play would commit $50 million to OUSD. “Our literacy goals are huge because the third-grade reading level and accomplishments are…metrics for high school completion,” Steph stated in a 2023 video interview with ESSENCE. “Around 66% of third graders in the OUSD system are below grade level proficiency”
The pair also spoke about students having access to “culturally relevant and age-appropriate books” to improve those scores.
From Struggle to Strength highlights the progress made since those early commitments, making it clear that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach for interventions. Each of the children featured have individual learning styles, and the schoolteachers and officials interviewed in the film advocate using tailored teaching methods, which is possible in part through individual and small group tutoring.
This kind of tailored intervention requires resources and Eat. Learn. Play pledged an estimated $25 million investment over five years to provide small group and one-on-one tutoring to 10,000 students. As Eat. Learn. Play. CEO Chris Helfrich shares in a statement provided to ESSENCE, “Our investment in literacy is an investment in the future of our children and our community.” With a focus on Oakland public schools, the organization aims to create a “model” to address low literacy rates nationally.
“I think the awareness of the issue is the most important thing,” Steph Curry stated in the film. “Whether you’re a parent, or an aunt or uncle, you would just want to encourage them to dig into their literacy journey in an intentional way.”
The superstar duo’s foundation has made other investments in Oakland’s public schools, centered on its three pillars, which are to improve the nutrition, learning, and physical activity of children. In January, Eat. Learn. Play partnered with other organizations to commit $650,000 to address elevated lead levels in OUSD schools, providing students with highly-filtered drinking water. Over the years, the organization has also remodeled schoolyards and pledged to create “little town libraries” throughout the city to provide over 50,000 free books to children.
As Ayesha shared in the couple’s 2023 interview, “A lot of people ask why partner with the school district? There are happy teachers and happy educators and people within the school system that want to make the change and the impact. It really just does come down to access. So to be able to provide that access to the teachers and faculty within the school system to set these kids up for success is really exciting.”
The documentary film, From Struggle to Strength: Advancing Literacy in Oakland, is now available to watch online