How Esperanza Elementary closed achievement gaps with 15 minutes of intervention per day
The Challenge
Esperanza Elementary in Oakland, California serves one of the highest concentrations of multilingual learners in the nation — 83 percent of their 430 students are English Language Learners (ELLs), primarily speaking Spanish or Mam. Most arrive reading well below grade level.
The national picture is stark: 90% of multilingual 4th graders read below proficiency.
“We’re really trying to support our English language learners to be able to access our curriculum and be active participants and fully engaged,” explained Cristina Segura, SEAL Coach with Oakland Unified’s ELLMA team and former Esperanza principal.
The Solution
In 2023-24, Esperanza Elementary partnered with Ignite Reading to provide 32 struggling readers with a one-to-one foundational skills reading intervention — just 15 minutes daily, 5 days a week.
The Results: 91% of students achieved 1-2 grade levels of reading growth in 25 weeks.
What Turned Reading Intervention Into Reading Gains
1. Strategic Student Selection
The team used phonics data and teacher recommendations to identify students with the largest foundational gaps. All participants were MLLs; 40% had IEPs.
2. Smart Scheduling
Esperanza runs a dual-language program (half Spanish, half English instruction). Staff scheduled daily reading intervention during English blocks to preserve English language development time and also ensure students didn’t miss Tier 1 core instruction.
“We were really strategic to make sure the students weren’t missing Spanish, because this was English instruction,” Segura noted.
Esperanza Elementary School Demographics
- 83% Multilingual Learners
- 95% Hispanic/Latino
- 94.7% Eligible for free/reduced lunch
- 14.9% Students with disabilities
3. True One-to-One Differentiation
Baseline diagnostics administered by Ignite Reading’s certified literacy tutors revealed vastly different starting points.
Armed with this information, Ignite Reading built a customized instructional sequence for each student, differentiating instruction to meet their precise needs.
Esperanza’s classroom teachers deftly juggle Tier 1 instruction with supporting the different learning needs of each child in the classroom, but there isn’t enough time in a school day for them to work one-to-one with each child on reading skills. The school has had to be intentional in selecting and scheduling reading interventions that could both be highly targeted to the students’ individual needs.
Even with interventionists pulling small groups of students, truly targeted instruction simply would not have been possible without Ignite Reading’s virtual tutors, Segura said.
“Ignite is providing our students an opportunity that they otherwise wouldn’t be getting — that one-to-one individualized support,” Segura said.
4. Expert, Caring Instructors
Students were matched with certified literacy tutors who understood MLL-specific strategies like Total Physical Response.
“I appreciated that Ignite Reading worked really hard to find folks — especially for the newcomers — that spoke a little bit of Spanish, so that they could connect,” Segura said. “To see how engaged students were, you could tell like this was someone they knew. They often don’t get that one-on-one — that’s rare.”
For one student in particular, Esperanza staff insights drove Ignite Reading’s tutor pairing, and it made a huge difference.
“He doesn’t like personal attention,” Segura said of the child. “I think he feels really bad about himself. He has a pretty severe speech difficulty, and he was able to make a connection with that tutor. There was a small shift for that scholar which was really cool.”
Program Overview
School: Esperanza Elementary, Oakland, CA
Students Served: 32 (100% MLLs, 40% with IEPs)
Model: 1:1 reading intervention, 15 min/day, 5 days/week
Duration: 25 weeks
Result: 91% gained 1-2 grade levels
5. Data That Drove Buy-In
Progress monitoring was conducted every 14 days by Ignite Reading’s literacy tutors, and it generated reports that teachers and families could actually use.
“Once they saw the first data report, teachers were like ‘Oh, this is really cool.’ Almost immediately they were so bought in because they saw crazy improvements,” Segura said.
When data showed attendance issues affecting progress, staff held family meetings: “We were like, ‘This is an opportunity that only X amount of students are getting. We chose your child. We really want them to benefit. We need them here.'”
The Bottom Line
Esperanza has continued to partner with Ignite Reading to provide daily reading intervention through the 25-26 school year, and Segura’s message to school principals is direct:
“I just think that schools need to figure it out. You’re making a mistake if you don’t. The lift is not that serious; it’s 15 minutes. What principal doesn’t have 15 minutes?”
