Too many Oakland students are being left behind: over 60% of Oakland public school students are reading below grade level. As the 2026 election approaches, when school board seats in Districts 2, 4, and 6 will be contested, families and students are sounding the alarm.
This summer, FIA and FIA4Justice family and student leaders took part in a Summer of Action. Family leaders interviewed school board candidates and asked them about their plans to improve students’ literacy and math proficiency rates. They reviewed proficiency numbers for schools across the city and talked about what those numbers meant for their future and their children’s future. Then they got together to get the word out to people in the community.
“Families and students in Oakland care about students doing better — they want them to be able to read, to be able to do math,” said Javier Barraza, FIA’s Associate Director of 6-12 Organizing. “The stakes are high, and this was an opportunity to turn the tables and hold folks who are in power accountable: Do better for our kids.”
Corwin Foster, a Cox Academy parent, was introduced to FIA through Lit for Literacy. He said he got a lot of value in sharing school data with voters this summer, as well as meeting directly with candidates and asking them questions.
“If you don’t get involved, you can’t really be mad when bad things happen,” he said. “Like when (the school board) makes the choice to close a high-performing school because it’s a charter, when they mismanage the budget, when they ignore parents’ opinions. It’s important that we take the time to figure out who these people are and what they stand for.”
Student and Parent leaders coming together to connect with 4,000 Oakland community members over the summer
Gisell Gastelum is a student who spent her summer as FIA’s Youth Organizing Fellow. As a high school student, she was a leader in FIA’s A-G campaign. After graduating, she spent time speaking with voters about the literacy and math rates of schools in their district.
“As an Oakland native, I just want what’s best for Oakland,” she said. “It felt good, and I knew what we were doing was important to go and knock on people’s doors and talk about how Oakland students are performing.”
FIA student leader Luan Nguyen joined Gisell in speaking with voters. He said it could be intimidating at first, but the more doors he knocked on, the more his confidence grew.
“The value I got from it was just being able to interact with the people in my community, to be able to share important data with them,” he said.
Student and Parent Leaders coming together to showcase the importance of the school board election this year
