Keeping in Touch

Valdosta, Ga.

When India Kitts brought home a 77 on a math test last year, her grandparents found her performance unacceptable. After tutoring didn’t help improve her scores, India’s grandmother took the matter into her own hands.

She began conducting “classes” with India, now 10, after school. India served as the instructor, equipped with a child-size chalkboard, and her grandmother, Carolyn Kitts, the student. Kitts would feign ignorance, repeatedly asking her granddaughter to explain the material, until she was sure India had mastered it.

The effort paid off this spring, when India’s average in mathematics reached 97 percent, and she received Clyattville Elementary School’s award for...