Marva Collins is from Atmore, Alabama. At that time and place, blacks and whites were segregated. The public library could did not permit use by black children. Schools were also segregated, and the black schools had few books.

Her father was a successful businessman. He taught her about her family's historical excellence. In that process, she learned to want more learning, achievement and independence. She graduated from Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. For two years after graduation, she taught school in Alabama. After this she moved to Chicago. For fourteen years, she taught in Chicago's public schools.

She grew extremely dissatisfied with the education of her two youngest children were receiving in prestigious private schools. So, in 1975 she decided to open her own school, "Westside Preparatory" in Garfield Park, a Chicago inner-city neighborhood. She took $5,000 from her pension fund and opened a school on her home's second floor. She enrolled her own children and four of their neighbors.

Marva accepted "learning disabled," "problem children" and even a "border-line retarded" child. After the first year every child scored at least five grades higher. Obviously, this proved the previous labels were misguided.

Her success with "unteachable" students led to profiles in Time and Newsweek magazines. She also made television appearances on 60 Minutes and Good Morning America. A CBS Special Movie, The Marva Collins Story, was made, with Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman. U.S. President Ronald Reagan offered her the office of Secretary of Education. She declined in order to stay at Westside Preparatory.

In 1990 Mrs. Collins worked with more than thirty Oklahoma public schools. Harvard University tracked the progress of eight principals. Four accepted the model enthusiastically. Four did not much promote it.

The four schools that did the work had an average increase on the Iowa Standardized Test of over 172%. One of the schools nearly tripled its test scores. The four other schools that did not do the work increased only 10%.

In 1995, Charles Murray wrote a controversial book called " The Bell Curve ". He claimed that Marva Collins' work would have no lasting effects on the children. 60 Minutes (CBS' TV News show) ran a second show about the lives of the first thirty-three students of Westside Preparatory. Statistically, one student should have been shot, two in jail and five on welfare. All thirty-three students, now adults, were successful. A majority chose teaching as a profession.

After 1996, Marva went back to the Chicago Public Schools to help the three worst schools on probation. They were in the worst areas, with the lowest parental involvement. As in Oklahoma, two schools implemented Marva Collins' methods. One school did not.

After only four months, the Iowa Standardized Test was scheduled. Beidler Elementary and McNair Elementary, the schools that did the work, increased test scores by over 85%, while the other school increased by only 10%. Beidler and McNair were part of an elite group of four schools that doubled their test scores. Beidler came off probation.

In the 1997/98 school year Marva Collins only worked with McNair Elementary. McNair posted the 10th highest increase in Math and the 6th highest increase in Reading in all of Chicago. 1998 concluded the first year of the Marva Collins Preparatory School of Milwaukee Wisconsin. She began her work with Wilson Elementary in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Marva Collins has received over 42 honorary doctoral degrees, including Amherst College, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame. She received the prestigious Jefferson Award for the Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged. In 1982 she was honored with Beverly Sills, Nancy Kissinger and Barbara Walters as one of the Legendary Women of the World. She has received the Lincoln Award of Illinois for service in the state. She served on the board of directors of President Bush's Points of Light Foundation. She has trained Fortune 500 Corporations and over 100,000 teachers, principals and administrators in the Marva Collins' Methodology. She has also traveled to Africa with Young President's Organization teaching her methodology to business people worldwide.

She has written and published several books on education and teaching.

Observed style

Marva changes the topic discussed in her classroom as often as twenty times per hour. In the process, she gives facts, makes assignments and leads discussions.

She uses a form of "socratic discourse" to teach independent reasoning in every field, even including subjects that are normally taught as skills, such as math and reading.

The reading list in her book is easy reading in terms of not having such large words, but it definitely is eye-opening for children because it encompasses the entire world of human experience.

Typical Teachings

Marva Collins says that every child is a winner until someone teaches him or her that they are useless.

Mrs. Collins encourages children to excel.

"Effective teaching requires making daily deposits so that every child can become a lifetime achiever and they will never have to go through life faced with 'insufficient funds'."

She tells her students that if you cannot keep one desk orderly, you cannot possibly keep the world.

She has often said that if we cannot control small things then larger things will not become ours to command.