MAKING A DIFFERENCE

BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL REPORT

5 parents pitch in to make a difference

Meet real-life people like you doing extraordinary things to make sure their kids get the best education possible.

By Dennis McCafferty

Cover: Back to school, making a difference
 

Last year, USA WEEKEND Magazine presented the stories of parents around the country who were making an extraordinary impact at their children's schools. Their efforts were not just inspiring, they were instructive, according to the many readers we heard from who said they wanted to learn more. So, in time for the new school year, we went into research-project mode to locate another set of outstanding parent innovators. Once again, their stories provide hands-on examples of how one person, armed with a little energy and a lot of determination, can improve the lives and learning of countless students. To find out how, read on:

Coach in the classroom
PARENT: Eldridge Ellis, 32, of Jackson, Miss., a retail-store assistant manager
WHAT HE'S DOING: Helping third-graders discover reading and writing while volunteering at his three daughters' elementary school, G.N. Smith, Eldridge Ellis was struck by the lack of needed detail in students' reports. "They'd write incomplete sentences," Ellis recalls. "But it was more like, 'It was good' or 'It was fun.' It made me wonder if they were really comprehending what they were reading."

Ellis channeled his volunteer energies into improving kids' reading and writing skills. He enrolled in six days of training with the Parents for Public Schools Leadership Institute in Jackson (modeled after the Prichard Committee's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership.) Then he met with school administrators to figure out how to apply what he had learned. It was decided he and other parent volunteers would start a writing lab with teachers to help students address specific problems and needs.

"One boy was a bit of a troublemaker in the classroom," Ellis says, "and he was having problems with reading and writing. I was seeing him all the time. Now, his written responses about what he's read are much more elaborative than before. His teachers say that he's acting up a lot less and focusing on his reading and writing much better. They're seeing this in a number of the children now."