Did marva collins start her own school?

In 1979, Marva Collins, a former teacher in the Chicago Public Schools system, opened her own school, Westside Preparatory School, on the city’s West Side. The school was a private, for-profit institution that charged tuition. It was started in response to what Collins saw as the failure of the public school system to provide a quality education to all children, regardless of economic status. Westside Prep was designed to offer a classical education to its students. The school day was longer than that of a typical public school, and the curriculum was based on the works of great thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. Collins believed that all children could benefit from this type of education, and she set high standards for her students. The school was an immediate success, and its students outperformed those in the public schools on standardized tests. Collins’s methods were controversial, however, and she was criticized by some for charging tuition and for her elitist approach to education. In the years since its founding, Westside Prep has continued to be a successful school, and its graduates have gone on to attend top colleges and universities. Collins’s work has inspired other educators to start their own schools, and her legacy continues to influence the way education is provided in the United States.