Entrepreneur Ayesha and her husband, NBA star Stephen Curry, have announced a commitment to improving literacy rates among students in their hometown of Oakland, California.
The couple’s foundation, the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, has pledged to raise $25 million over the next five years to fund various literacy initiatives in the city.
The investment will fund 10,000 tutoring spots for elementary school students who need to catch up in reading. This will allow young children to receive one-on-one professional tutoring that they would not otherwise be able to afford.
The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) plans to invest $25 million in small-group tutoring to serve up to 4,500 students annually by 2029.
“When we launched Eat. Learn. Play. five years ago, we set out to provide opportunities to ensure every student in Oakland had the resources they need to be healthy and thrive,” said Stephen and Ayesha Curry. “This commitment is about more than just closing the literacy gap; it’s about giving these kids the confidence to succeed in all areas of life. We’ve seen firsthand the impact this level of tutoring support can have on a child’s development, and it is our hope that we can work to close the literacy gap and encourage reading for a generation of students.”
In 2022, the foundation pledged to build 150 libraries throughout Oakland and put 30,000 books in the hands of youth. Further initiatives over the years have included $5 million in grants to support tutoring in more than 20 elementary schools, $2.5 million in grants assigned to libraries and teachers, and the refurbishment of two elementary school libraries.
Last year, the foundation, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, commissioned a literacy report called “Advancing Literacy Efforts in Oakland” to better understand the community’s needs.
The report found that the literacy gap “continues to drive disparities in literacy rates and academic achievement.” Furthermore, the report showed that one-on-one tutoring is often very effective, albeit very expensive. The foundation’s mission is to ensure that cost is not a limitation for thousands of Oakland children.
Eat. Learn. Play. ran a pilot program in the spring before making this announcement. The foundation collaborated with three tutoring providers — Hoot Reading, Ignite Reading, and Open Literacy — to tutor approximately 600 students across 18 elementary schools in Oakland. The pilot program confirmed our belief that there would be a significant return on investment.
The investment aims to strengthen small-group tutoring in addition to one-on-one tutoring. According to the release, the foundation will also continue supporting OUSD and local literary partners with “strategic planning, capacity building and technical assistance. “
