PROOF: MARVA COLLINS
Solving the MYSTERY of MARVA COLLINS
provides PROOF of the LEAD OUT METHOD
Collins got the TWO RESULTS we all want:
1. EDUCATED: Ready for REAL-LIFE independence.
2. LEARNED: Mastered the official curriculum.
by addressing the RIGHT PROBLEM
too many students are:
NOT YET ABLE to WILLINGLY engage in the learning
NOR ABLE to use the VERY AUTONOMY they need to learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
using the same two parts of the LEAD OUT METHOD
EDUCATING for Autonomy & Wellness
LEARNING the curriculum IN THE ZONE
INCONTROVERTIBLE FACTS & LOGIC to keep us ANCHORED to the challenge before us.
KEY FACTS
We CANNOT FORCE a student to WILLINGLY ENGAGE in the learning.
The ONLY way for anyone to learn is IN-THE-ZONE.
If the challenge is too difficult, I can't learn it. If it is too easy, it is boring.
LOGIC
If students are EDUCATED for AUTONOMY & WELLNESS they become:
ABLE to WILLINGLY engage in whole-class, group-based and individual learning, and,
ABLE to AUTONOMOUSLY learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
The MYSTERY of Marva Collins
NO ONE has REPRODUCED the SUCCESS of Marva Collins.
WHY NOT?
There are documentaries, movies and books.
• 1981 TV Movie: The Marva Collins Story, starring Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman • 1981 60 Minutes episode: SUCCESS! The Marva Collins Approach • 1995 60 Minutes episode: Too Good to Be True? • Book: Collins, Marva, and Civia Tamarkin. Marva Collins' Way. New York: Putnam, 1990. Foreword by Alex Haley • Book: Collins, Marva. Ordinary Children, Extraordinary Teachers. Norfolk, VA: Hampton Roads Pub. Co, 1992
With all that information, WHY hasn't anyone been able to DUPLICATE Marva Collins success?
Because:
Collins intuited sciences and techniques years and decades before they became available.
The "secret sauce' that made Collins' success possible can't be seen unless one is aware of these new developments.
Collins herself didn't have a theoretical basis to explain what she was doing — as the necessary knowledge hadn't yet arrived.
The CLUES provided by Collins did NOT explain her success.
For example:
Collins claimed her success was partly from just plain hard work — as if teachers don't already work hard.
"I think people attribute really what I do is being a miracle when it's simply hard-working preparation."
— Marva Collins, from the 1981 60 Minutes episode
Marva claimed teachers can get the same results she gets with a "positive attitude".
"Teachers can get the same results that I get by developing a positive attitude."
— Marva Collins, from the 1981 60 Minutes episode
Marva advocated for the use of phonics. (See the 1981 60 Minutes episode.)
Teachers all over the country use phonics!
IF these CLUES explained Collins's success THEN Collins' results would be easily replicated.
Just "work hard", have a "positive attitude" and use phonics.
As will be shown, it wasn't just "working hard", having a "positive attitude" and using phonics.
You might say Collins didn't appreciate her own brilliance, believing what she knew was common sense.
On the contrary, it was an extraordinary sensibility.
Uncommon ability.
The beautiful results were born from uncommon ability, intuiting a different priority, applied with specific techniques and implemented with definitive processes. Even the role of the educator was defined differently by Collins.
From uncommon to common.
Now, these wonderful results CAN be replicated. Knowledge now available, when acquired and applied will make Collins' uncommon and beautiful results, beautifully common.
BACKGROUND
In 1975, after 14 years as a substitute teacher in the Chicago Public School System, Collins started a school in her home. The school later moved into an abandoned bank building.
The purpose of the school was to serve low income black children, some of whom Collins believed the Chicago Public School System had mischaracterized as learning disabled.
(See this Wikipedia page for more information about Marva Collins.)
News about the Collins' success spread, eventually resulting in a movie staring Cicely Tyson, an invitation from President Ronald Reagan to be the U.S. Secretary of Education.
The news show 60 Minutes produced two episodes about Collins (1981 and 1995). (See the full episodes at the bottom of this page.)
1981 60 Minutes Episode 1
Though covering a class in 1979, the episode came out in 1981.
The host, Morley Safer says "the results are apparent even to a casual bystander....alert and challenged children..."
What is readily apparent in this first episode, what jumps out, is the engagement, the focus.
We see 10 year old children reading Chaucer and Shakespeare.
As adults interviewed in Episode 2, these students relate how they had previously been written off as unteachable or learning-disabled.
1995 60 Minutes Episode 2: prompted by skepticism.
The 1995 second episode was prompted by skeptics, among them Charles Murray, co-author of the controversial book about race and intelligence, first published in 1994 called "The Bell Curve".
Murray claimed the results Collins achieved were a sham, "too good to be true", that the results were not real.
Further, Murray claimed that any academic improvement shown would fade as students grew up.
So, as the 60 Minutes host Morley Safer says himself, "We decided to check it out.", and invited students from the 1981 episode back to see how they are doing.
"We traced 33 of the 34 and flew a group of them back to Chicago, back to Westside Prep's new location for a reunion of sorts, to see if Charles Murray's allegations in The Bell Curve are true; to see whether or not these young men and women lived up to Marva Collins' claims."
COLLINS ACHIEVED
the TWO (2) RESULTS WE ALL WANT.
1. EDUCATED: Ready for REAL-LIFE independence.
2. LEARNED: Mastered the official curriculum.
PROOF
1. EDUCATED: Ready for REAL-LIFE independence.
Statistical proof
For the 1991 episide, 60 Minutes asked a statistician, Dr. Guy Stewart, to compare the 33 of the 34 students they were able to find from the class profiled in 1981 with their peers in other neighborhood schools.
Statistically, Stewart said, that of the 33 students taught by Collins:
- one should have been murdered
- at least two in prison
- five on welfare
Of the 33 graduates of Westside Prep:
- all are alive
- none are in prison
- none are on welfare
NOT just alive, NOT in jail, NOT on welfare — DOING VERY WELL.
See for yourself.
1 minute, 6 seconds
33 seconds
54 seconds
PROOF
2. LEARNED: Mastered the official curriculum.
Standards-based education reform didn't arrive till 1994 with the Goals 2000 Act.
As such, standardized test scores aren't available for comparison. Further, Collins' school was private, and didn't have to conform with the curriculum of the Chicago Public Schools.
Necessarily therefore, the proof of academic success is more anecdotal.
Nevertheless, these video snippets about READING and CRITICAL THINKING are quite persuasive.
See for yourself.
28 seconds
14 seconds
35 seconds
What about math, science and history?
There is not a lot of evidence about proficiency in these subjects.
Again, standards-based education reform didn't arrive till 1994 with the Goals 2000 Act, so comparative test results aren't available. And of course, Collins' school was private, so she wouldn't have been obligated to use these standardized tests even if they were available.
However, given Collins' students were able to read and think, they were clearly ready to learn all of these subjects.
Without standardized testing, a comparison.
While we don't have the comparatives that are available from reporting required by today's federal laws, we can say with a great deal of confidence that students in Collins' school were learning — "precisely" — a lot more than in comparative neighboring schools.
Seven (7) according do Dr. Guy Stewart, in neighboring schools were murdered, in jail or on welfare.
In Collins' school, at least seven (7) (by our count from the videos) are in college or already graduated from college.
Collin's school |
Other schools in the neighborhood |
|
|---|---|---|
Murdered |
0 |
1 |
In jail |
0 |
At least 2 |
On welfare |
0 |
5 |
In college or graduated |
7 (that we can count in the videos) |
Unknown |
BOTTOM LINE LEARNING PROOF
Collins' students were clearly ENGAGED; reading above grade level; doing critical thinking. Many went on to college, and not only stayed out of trouble but are purposefully pursuing paths and careers.
In comparison to other schools, clearly Collins' students learned a great deal more.
COLLINS SUCCEEDED
using the TWO ELEMENTS of the LEAD OUT METHOD:
EDUCATING for Autonomy & Wellness
LEARNING the curriculum IN THE ZONE
-
EDUCATING for AUTONOMY & WELLNESS
1. Educating for Autonomy & Wellness
Powerfully, in the video snippets below, we will see Collins Educating for Autonomy & Wellness.
Without a theoretical basis for doing so, nevertheless, this is exactly what she was doing.
In doing so, Collins was addressing the RIGHT PROBLEM:
Too many students are NOT YET ABLE to WILLINGLY engage in the learning NOR ABLE to use the VERY AUTONOMY they need to learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
Notice in these snippets, the INTENTION to do what we call EDUCATING for Autonomy & Wellness.
8 seconds
Purpose of education: readiness for life in society
26 seconds
Educating: "drawing out", similar to "lead out from within"
9 seconds
You can do it yourself. You are independent.
Recall from the Lead Out Method:
from PSYCHOLOGY TODAY (emphasis ours):
Neuroplasticity
The importance of neuroplasticity can’t be overstated: It means that it is possible to change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving and to develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities.
from Positive Psychology, that:
-
Wellness is not just the ABSENCE of disease, but the POSITIVE PRESENCE of wellness.
New neural pathways forming new attitudes, mindsets and habits can be developed with deliberately chosen thoughts and emotions.
-
That daily repetition is the key is to developing these new neural pathways.
See for yourself HOW Collins applied these principles to EDUCATE for Autonomy & Wellness.
The documentaries couldn't show everything Collins was doing. Consider these samples of Collins' work to Educate for Autonomy & Wellness.
15 seconds
Reinforcing a new, positive, capable identity, every day.
33 seconds
A daily affirmation that evokes the will, every day.
12 seconds
Something positive at the start of every day.
19 seconds
You are brilliant. Every day.
27 seconds
People predict. I determine.
12 seconds
A student. People predict. I determine.
35 seconds
BOTTOM LINE:
EDUCATING for Autonomy & Wellness WORKS.
This clear evidence students can go from "goofing off" to using the wise part within.
-
LEARNING the curriculum IN THE ZONE
2. LEARNING the curriculum IN THE ZONE
Unlike today's school districts, Collins wasn't constrained by a teaching schedule from a central planning department.
This afforded Collins the freedom to organize the learning in such a way that it worked for her particular students.
It is difficult to overstate how important this freedom was to Collins' success.
Everything below was made possible by this freedom.
Just like the Lead Out Method, Collins divides the school year into roughly two parts:
- BEGINNING of SCHOOL YEAR — READINESS ASSURANCE
- THE REST of the SCHOOL YEAR — OFFICIAL CURRICULUM IN-THE-ZONE
BEGINNING of SCHOOL YEAR — READINESS ASSURANCE
READINESS REQUIREMENT: A LOVE OF READING AND CRITICAL THINKING
As Collins says herself:
"How can we ever separate reading and thinking from any subject. A child can't do well in typing class unless they know how to read and think. A child can't do well in biology, chemistry or anything unless they have the ability to think."
15 seconds
READING and THINKING are essential for ALL subjects.
34 seconds
Get 4 year old students reading and doing basic math at the BEGINNING of the year.
READING LIST (PARTIAL)
Just as the Lead Out Method advocates, Collins provides many books in the classroom.
• 101 Famous Poems by Roy Jay Cook (Editor) • Aesop’s Fables by Aesop • A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare • Andromache by Euripides • An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope • Animal Farm by George Orwell • A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens • Candide by Voltaire • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl • Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky • Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville • Fables and Fairy Tales by Leo Tolstoy • Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by Hans Christian Andersen • Favorite Tales from Shakespeare by Bernard Miles • Fire and Ice by Robert Frost • Francis Bacon on Counsel, Plantations, Custom and Education, and Vicissitude of Things by Francis Bacon • Frederick Douglass by Arna Bontemps • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens • Hamlet by William Shakespeare • If: A Father's Advice to His Son by Rudyard Kipling • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou • Invictus by William Ernest Henley • Jack and the Beanstalk by Joseph Jacobs • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë • Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare • Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling • King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green • King Lear by William Shakespeare • Les Fables De La Fontaine by Jean-Joseph Julaud • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott • Lord of the Flies by William Golding George Orwell • Macbeth by William Shakespeare • Masterpieces of World Literature in Digest Form by Frank N. Magill • Moby Dick by Herman Melville • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass • Oedipus Rex by Sophocles • Orpheus and Eurydice by Hugh Lupton • Ovid's Metamorphoses: Books 1-5 by Ovid • Petrouchka: The Story of the Ballet by Vivian Werner • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen • Puccini's La Boheme (the Dover Opera Libretto Series) by Giacomo Puccini • Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe • Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare • Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson • Spring is Here: A Bear and Mole Story by Will Hillenbrand • Tales of O. Henry by O. Henry • The Ballet Called Giselle by Cyril W. Beaumont • The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky • The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer • The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm • The Emperor's Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy • The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe • The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde • The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling • The Little Red Hen and the Grain of Wheat by Watery Piper • The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling • The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare • The Mourning Bride by William Congreve • The Mysterious Island (Captain Nemo, #3) by Judy Blume • The Mysterious Island (Captain Nemo, #3) by Jules Verne • The Odyssey by Homer • The Odyssey of Homer by Homer • The Official Bolshoi Ballet Book of the Nutcracker by Yuri Grigorovich • The Pearl by John Steinbeck • The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan • The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli • The Republic by Plato • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge • The Satyricon by Petronius • The Song of Roland by Unknown • The Summoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer • The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter • The Wife of Bath by Geoffrey Chaucer • Three Mozart Libretti by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe • Vocabulary for the College Bound Student by Harold Levine • Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett • Walden by Henry David ThoreauBut did students actually read these books?
YES.
19 seconds
YEARLY: READINESS ASSURANCE FOR NEXT YEAR
Collins did not have an approach for assuring learning readiness for next year, except that is, for TWO THINGS. Collins' students LOVE TO READ and they can THINK.
While it's not clear Collins had a defined curriculum for each subject and each grade for each year, whatever the curriculum, Collins' students were able to read the material and apply themselves to doing the thinking work.
Regarding readiness for more advanced math, science and history, Collins didn't benefit from Deming's method. as it had just been discovered in this country in 1980, for production and had not yet been applied to other types of work such as service and retail and certainly not education, as the Lead Out Method is the first to subsume Deming's method for that purpose.
In summary, while a readiness method (Deming) wasn't available, Collins nevertheless achieved the most important readiness requirement, the ability to read and think, something that is required for every subject.
THE REST of the SCHOOL YEAR — OFFICIAL CURRICULUM IN-THE-ZONE
Collins individualized the learning — as much as one person can do.
Collins recognized that students had different learning zones, but techniques to involve students in planning the learning had not yet arrived.
SCRUM for example, was first introduced at a OOPSLA conference in 1995.
To address in-the-zone learning, Collins herself did the planning work.
Many nights would find Collins developing individualized learning tasks for students.
-
A LACK of THEORY PREVENTS COLLINS' SUCCESS from being REPLICATED ELSEWHERE.
3. A LACK of THEORY PREVENTS COLLINS' SUCCESS from being REPLICATED ELSEWHERE.
Methods for working together come with theoretical knowledge, the failure of which to acquire dooms implementation. Simply copying how-to knowledge does not work.
Robert J. Caveney, SCHOOLIO founder
The GOOD NEWS is COLLINS' SUCCESS can be REPLICATED, with the SAME SEVEN (7) ELEMENTS of the LEAD OUT METHOD.
The NEW PRIORITY of the LEAD OUT METHOD is SELF-DIRECTED DRIVE
Collins did not enunciate a priority to guide intentions and efforts.
NEW CAUSE & EFFECT THEORY
Collins did not have a cause & effect theory.
NEW THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE
Whereas Collins intuited knowledge, she wasn't able to effectively share her intuited knowledge.
Now the knowledge is readily available: Neuroscience, Positive Psychology, new methods such as Deming's method, and of course, the Lead Out Method.
NEW HOW-TO KNOWLEDGE
Collins did have educators use some of the same techniques she applied, for example affirmations, finding something positive to say about each student every day.
Other teachers did use some of the same practices, such as phonics and critical thinking.
NEW ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Planning the learning was taken on by educators, not a central planning department.
Collins added to the role of teacher the role of educator, from the original meaning: to lead out the student from within, so students can lead themselves more independently.
But not consciously. Not as part of a plan for the school.
NEW MOTIVATION THEORY: INTRINSIC + INDEPENDENCE DRIVE
Collins deliberately encouraged and developed the very powerful drive for independence, for autonomy.
The science of learning motivation wasn't available, so the three conditions known to activate the drive to learn could not be deliberately employed.
NEW PROCESSES: GROUPS OF STEPS
If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you are doing.
W. Edwards Deming
Collins, while not using the word "process" as part of a "system", nevertheless, systematically applied processes, for example: the daily affirmation.
Overall however, Collins did not define a set of nested processes as part of an overall system.
Without defined processes, it hasn't been possible to make a "recipe" that can be used over and over again to get the beautiful results Collins clearly achieved.