In this book, "mentor" refers to individuals who have aided students individually or collectively. The work of specific mentors is profiled throughout this book. Mentors are individuals, mainly private citizens, who have made a difference in the Nation's public schools. As described in this book, mentors' roles have ranged from working with students one-on-one, to bringing about the reform of an entire school system, to establishing national programs that benefit millions. Common to all the mentors profiled is the willingness to get involved in an institution that greatly impacts children and to work from within or to push from the outside to make a difference in local and State systems that often are unable to help themselves. One of the programs described is a preschool program that brings children in impoverished rural areas up to the performance level of their affluent suburban peers by the time they enter school. In another program, mentors have worked with at-risk students and reduced their dropout rate to 1 percent. In a number of schools, students once regarded as hopeless are now mastering a full core curriculum and going on to college. In a southeastern State that has an adult illiteracy rate of 33 percent, kindergarten students are learning to read by writing stories on personal computers. Readers are also introduced to schools in Harlem, the South Bronx, and other inner-city areas where almost all of the students graduate, and 90 percent go on to college or get jobs. The book concludes with guidelines for how individuals can become involved to improve student learning and educational systems in their communities. Appended 93-item bibliography and supplementary information