Marva Collins, papers

Collection — Box: 1-3

Identifier: 0000-0000-0000-0206

Staff Only

Scope and contents

The Marva Collins Papers consist of personal and professional papers generated throughout Collins’ career. The papers span from 1975 to 2008, the majority of which date from the 1970s-1980s. Contents center on Westside Preparatory School’s works, including Collins’ teaching materials, readings, publicity materials, and printed and published items, such as magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and newsletters, that cover the school’s impact and Collins’ methodology. There are audiovisual materials as well, with photographs from 1975-2005, and a taped interview from 1981.

The collection was donated in 2016 by Westside Preparatory School board member and friend of Marva Collins, Nancy Soukup. Soukup includes in the collection her own personal correspondence with relevant school board members, donors, and other parties. In 2017, another donation was made by Soukup to include Soukup’s personal research materials that were to be used for a book, "Letters from Marva," that never went on to publication. These items, which include correspondence with Marva, such as letters, greeting cards, memos, and other Westside Preparatory School materials and media coverage are located within its own series.

Dates

Creation: 1975-2017

Rights statement

All materials in this collection are either protected by copyright and/or are the property of the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, Inc., and/or the copyright holder as appropriate. For more information, please contact archives@auctr.edu.

Biographical note

Marva Collins (1936-2015) was a prolific American educator and founder of Westside Preparatory School in Chicago, Illinois. Born on August 31, 1936, in Monroeville, Alabama, to Henry Knight and Bessie Knight, and was raised in Atmore, Alabama. She attended Clark College, now Clark Atlanta University, where she received her BA. Following graduation, she worked for two years in the Alabama school system before relocating to Chicago in 1959, where she worked as a public educator for fourteen years. She married her husband, Clarence Collins, in 1960 and remained together until his death in 1995. They had three children: Patrick, Eric, and Cynthia.

Collins’ frustration with Chicago Public Schools came to a critical point in 1975, when her educational vision led her to founding Westside Preparatory School, a low-cost private elementary school in West Garfield Park, Chicago. The classroom was located on the second floor of her home, and her first class included her own son and daughter as well as other neighborhood children. Her teaching methods proved to be a great success, reflected in high marks on students’ standardized tests. As Chicago Public Schools continued to fail largely low-income, black student populations, Collins took charge of providing them with a robust and impactful education.

Her success was soon recognized nationally, with media attention directed towards her teaching methods as well as Westside Preparatory School, including a 1981 TV movie based on her, The Marva Collins Story. She declined President Reagan’s secretary of education nomination in order to continue her work in Chicago. She eventually rejoined Chicago Public Schools in 1996 as a supervisor, overseeing schools that had been put on probation, those with low academic records and minimal parental involvement. Her positive impact on these learning communities soon proliferated, with Marva Collins Preparatory Schools opening its doors in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida. She spent time training educators and gaining funding for educational missions. In 2004, she received the National Humanities Medal for her efforts.

Westside Preparatory School closed its doors in 2008 due to a lack of funding and enrollment, while her teaching methods continue to live on. On June 24, 2015, at the age of 78, Collins died in Beaufort County, South Carolina while in hospice care.

Extent

1.5 Linear feet (3 manuscript boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection is divided into three series: 1. Personal Papers; 2. Westside Preparatory School; and 3. Nancy Soukup. All of the series are further divided into sub-series. The contents of the series are arranged alphabetically. See series notes for each series for more details.