via Wikimedia
When educator Brittany Harris noticed the low test scores in her school district, she knew she had to do something about it.
Harris identified that parent involvement was also low, and to achieve improvement, parents needed to make regular visits to the school - a hard thing to ask of parents in low-income Chattanooga, TN.
But Harris found quite a unique solution.
The Passage is a portable school created by Harris and colleague Colleen Ryan.
It's a minibus transformed into a mobile classroom for the community, filled with tables, chairs, a whiteboard, iPads, and any other classroom item you’d find in school.
Harris and Ryan take The Passage to the homes of students, where they collaborate with both children and parents to create strategies that will help students build strong study habits.
Usually serving Kindergarten through 5th grade children, they offer a 30-minute session once a week for four weeks.
Because, as Ryan put it, “parents are the first teachers of their children.” The Passage is an opportunity for parents - and the community - to feel empowered to help their kids academically. When they do, children always come out on top!