MARION JOSEPH has devoted more than 38 years as a volunteer and professional seeking improvement in the educational achievement of California’s youth. While interested in all children, she has had a special interest in the disadvantaged and special students. In the early 1960s she designed and implemented a program that served more than 700 children a week, involving 300 adult tutors in centers throughout the poorer sections of Sacramento. From 1971-1980 she served on the Senior Executive Staff of the State Department of Education where she was one of the key architects of the California Master Plan for Education. She was involved in the state law for Special Education implemented a year before the federal law. Marion was a major driver in the School Improvement Plan (SIP), helping parents become more active in their children’s school sites, and the Early Childhood Education (ECE) plan. Coming out retirement in the early ‘90s, Marion was moved to find a solution to the problem of failing reading scores in California. The resulting effort, THE READING LIONS PROJECT, is already experiencing success. Marion is currently serving a second term on the Board of Education. She has been called the “Paul Revere of Reading.”
