Chicago Education Pioneer Marva Collins, 78, Dies
(CBS) -- Legendary Chicago school teacher and education trailblazer Marva Collins has died.
She was a public school teacher in Chicago for 14 years who lost faith in how things were being done. But she did not lose faith in Chicago's inner-city kids, CBS 2's Mike Parker reports.
Collins started West Side Preparatory school in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood with her own money. She taught students not just to learn but to think. Parents couldn't wait to get their kids under her spell. The city's police superintendent of the era, Richard Brzeczek, enrolled his 12-year-old son.
Her goal was to get all of her students into college. Most of them did.
Collins ran West Side Prep for more than 30 years until it closed in 2008.
"Teachers never die. They live on through their students, and she has made an indelible impression on all of us," West Side pastor Paul Jakes says.
Collins was most widely publicized in the 1981 biographical television movie "The Marva Collins Story" starring Cicely Tyson.
Collins was 78 when she died in South Carolina earlier this week.