Executive Director

Gary Community School Corporation
Gary, IN

Principal since 1988 of the George Washington Elementary School (enrollment 351) in the Gary Community School Corporation. Mrs. Moore serves on a state parental involvement and student motivation task force, organized 500 middle and high school students in an Urban League Partnership for the first city-wide Youth Education Seminar (YES), and was awarded three School Improvement Grants of $2,000 each from the Gary Educational Development Fund for her innovative TIPS program (Teachers Involving Parents and Students), Four-Star Achievement Program, and "Success for All: I Am Special Too." She received the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award this year and Kappa Delta Phi Excellence in Education Award in 1995.

"Many of the innovative programs initiated at our school have been adopted throughout the district and by school systems in other states," says Cordia Moore, principal of George Washington Elementary School in Gary. Under Mrs. Moore's leadership, the school has experienced across-the-board success in everything from a dramatic rise in state rankings on standardized tests to the creation of a Parent Center that is a source of constant assistance for students and school alike. She has revised the school week to include Activity Wednesday, an award-winning program that provides time for students to develop projects that reflect specific skills or talents. For an eight-week period, students are matched by interest with teachers in such diverse pursuits as chess, foreign languages or photography. Mrs. Moore is also a forerunner in the implementation of the parent/child technologically supported reading program "Brightest To Best Interactive Summer Program."