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Sixty years after the Supreme Court declared separate schools for black and white children unconstitutional, school segregation is making a comeback. What’s behind the growing racial divide in American schools — and what’s the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education?
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00:16Tonight on Frontline, two stirring reports about education across America.
00:22First, in Louisiana, some parents want to break away from the Baton Rouge School District and start their own.
00:28These are some of the worst schools in the country. Nobody's getting educated in these schools.
00:33It will be segregated along race lines and class lines.
00:37The fight over education and desegregation.
00:40The Justice Department achieved their goal. Who can say we're not desegregated?
00:45We have an African-American president. We've been through all that.
00:49We need to let us go back and rebuild our schools now.
00:53And later tonight, Frontline checks back in with a teenager who made the most of her middle school moment.
01:00I'm incredibly proud of your accomplishments.
01:03I miss you, Dad. You're going to make me cry.
01:07Two powerful stories. One exclusive hour of Frontline.
01:20Frontline is made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.
01:29And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
01:33Major support for Frontline is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
01:39Committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.
01:43More information is available at macfound.org.
01:47Additional support is provided by the Park Foundation.
01:51Dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues.
01:54The Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide at fordfoundation.org.
02:04The Wincoat Foundation.
02:07And by the Frontline Journalism Fund, with major support from John and Joanne Hagler.
02:13And additional support from Susan Hunter and Douglas Watson.
02:17And the Orfala Foundation.
02:46And the Orfala Foundation.
03:06Niki Dangerfield is a single mother with four children.
03:10She works long hours as a FedEx manager.
03:13I get up at the crack of dawn, and sometime I don't get home from work.
03:18Until six, seven, maybe eight o'clock.
03:21And then cook dinner.
03:24Talk to the kids.
03:25And then sometime I'm talking to them, but halfway asleep.
03:30And it's like, okay, mama, go to bed.
03:33So, yes, I'm very busy.
03:35But I'm only busy for them.
03:37You got your workbook?
03:39Yes, ma'am.
03:40I cannot pay for an education.
03:43But I would like for them to get the best public education that they could.
03:50Half a century ago, her children's educational options would have been limited by their skin color.
03:57Baton Rouge, like most of the South, had a segregated school system.
04:01But after a hard-fought civil rights battle, her children now have alternatives to the struggling schools in their own
04:08neighborhood.
04:08As a whole, I feel that the public school system has done right by my family.
04:16My love, my dear.
04:17I love you, too. Have a good day.
04:19You, too.
04:20Every morning before dawn, the Dangerfield kids wait for buses that will carry them to integrated schools throughout Baton Rouge.
04:27I think the benefit of the kids going to schools with different cultures, with children that have different economic backgrounds,
04:38they see a better life.
04:42And they can say, okay, what can I do to have a better life?
04:47They can dream bigger.
04:55These schools are some of the worst schools in the country.
04:58They're some of the most violent schools in the country.
05:01Nobody's getting educated in these schools.
05:04But not everyone is happy with how busing has changed the schools here.
05:08What are they doing? Where is their plan to better the schools?
05:14Fed up with what they say are dangerous, failing, and mismanaged schools,
05:17a group of residents has come up with a plan.
05:25They've begun a movement to form an entirely new city out of a large area of suburban neighborhoods,
05:30taking part of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system with them.
05:34You know, thank you for coming out tonight.
05:40I see these children here.
05:45That's why we're here.
05:48These children right here are why we're here.
05:53EBR has failed our children for 30-plus years.
05:58The new city would be called St. George
06:00and would be whiter and more affluent than Baton Rouge.
06:06In starting right here, with this petition right here,
06:10we have the opportunity to make a difference.
06:13We can do it.
06:17So, come on up and sign the petition.
06:26We've had enough of failing our children.
06:30We're not going to do it anymore,
06:31and we'll go to the length of creating our own city
06:34to create our own education system to take control back from the status quo.
06:40Hey, over here, look.
06:42Look.
06:43The fight hasn't even started yet.
06:45The powers that be will do everything that they can do to make this not happen.
06:52It will take roughly 18,000 signatures to get the idea on a ballot,
06:56and the group hopes to achieve that by the end of 2014.
07:01The idea of breaking away and forming a new school district.
07:04Around the country, movements like the one in Baton Rouge have been spreading over the past several years.
07:11The city of Pelham is thinking about declaring its independence from the Shelby County school system.
07:17They say their city should have control over their own schools.
07:21In city after city, mostly middle class parents dissatisfied with their public school districts are trying to break away.
07:28I think it would help out a lot if we, you know, broke off and became our own district.
07:33The goal is to create smaller, community-oriented school systems.
07:37The city of Brookhaven is acting in their own best interest.
07:41But the result is often school districts that are less racially and economically diverse.
07:46They are carving out a section of town that is wealthier and whiter than what they are leaving behind.
07:53Critics are concerned that decades after the civil rights victories of the 1960s,
07:57the era of school integration may be coming to an end.
08:04If Martin Luther King were to come back and see where we are now,
08:08I think he'd be shocked to see that the schools are actually more segregated than they were when he died.
08:13Professor Warfield says that a series of Supreme Court rulings have eroded much of the progress made
08:19since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision 60 years ago.
08:23The Supreme Court really began to turn backwards decisively on desegregation in 1991.
08:31So basically, that began the dismantling of desegregation plans across the country.
08:36And almost all of the larger ones have now been dismantled in our big cities.
08:42In Baton Rouge, the desegregation order was lifted in 2003.
08:47The student population is now 11% white.
08:50And many in the school district are concerned that number will drop even lower if the St. George proposal succeeds.
08:56And that is not fair to the children who remain behind in the East Baton Rouge administration position.
09:00Belinda Davis, a local activist with three children in the Baton Rouge schools,
09:04is vowing to prevent the creation of the new city of St. George.
09:09You are automatically going to be creating a city that is less diverse than the one you are leaving.
09:16And we have all kinds of specialized services and schools that we are able to provide
09:21because of the size of our school district.
09:24All of that is in jeopardy if this new school system is created.
09:28There are about 6,696 students that will be displaced if the new city school district is created.
09:34I mean, this is about lives.
09:36This is about potential that we are squashing by continuing to carve up our school district,
09:43that we could do wonderful things together.
09:45We're stronger as one than we are broken up into pieces.
09:52Among those fighting to keep the school district intact is Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden.
09:57We do not allow a small group of people to divide us, weaken our capital city, bankrupt our future.
10:07But he faces stiff opposition from some of his constituents.
10:10Thank you all for the opportunity to address you, and I'm free to answer any questions that you have.
10:17Yes, sir.
10:18I was watching the news one night, and they had you on TV,
10:20that you are opposed to this area becoming a St. George city.
10:25Yes, sir.
10:27And the question is, why would you want to oppose letting the people of this area vote on that issue?
10:34Well, because, first of all, Baton Rouge has come too far as a united city.
10:40I'm against division when it's not needed.
10:43The city of St. George will still be in the parish of East Baton Rouge Parish.
10:47It will not be separating.
10:48Well, it will separate in this sense.
10:51The plan that's out there will be trying to take money allocated for the whole parish and operate their city.
11:00Holden says that the school district relies on the taxes paid by the more affluent neighborhoods now trying to break
11:07away,
11:08and that without that money, the schools will suffer.
11:10What will happen is that the city of Baton Rouge would have to stand alone.
11:15They would not be able to cipher money from the other cities outside of Baton Rouge that's being paid into
11:21the parish.
11:22It will be segregated along race lines and class lines.
11:27It is going to be devastating to the school system as a whole.
11:32A lot of the poor areas will not be receiving the same quality education.
11:36Are you saying we're supplementing these people right now?
11:39If we quit supplementing them, they'd be in trouble?
11:41We're supplementing each other.
11:43I came from a poor background, but yet it was the fact that I was introduced to a broader range
11:50of people and things
11:51that allowed me to get out of those poor circumstances up to where I am now.
11:55I think the frustration lies in the fact that people are fed up with this money that I'm talking about
12:01getting put into the city revenue stream, and we're not getting the return on it.
12:05We're trying to tell people, you know, it's time for us to stick together.
12:09We've come too far.
12:11Too much progress has been made to turn that clock back.
12:18To understand what the two sides are fighting over, it helps to look at Woodlawn High.
12:24Its story is the same as thousands of others.
12:28When it was founded in 1949, most of its 286 students lived nearby, and they were all white.
12:36How has Woodlawn changed over the years?
12:39I think all you need to do is go down the hallway by the gym and see the different senior
12:45class pictures,
12:46and you're going to see the increase in diversity.
12:50That's the main difference that I see, is just greater representation of all peoples in society here.
13:00Today, Woodlawn has over 1,200 students, and its population is around 60% African American.
13:09The school has special programs for gifted and talented students.
13:13Non-diluted assets.
13:14There's an orchestra and marching band,
13:19advanced placement classes,
13:22and a popular football team.
13:26But schools in the district have also been struggling.
13:29Around 40% of them are rated D or F,
13:32and the state has taken over part of the school system.
13:37Woodlawn also has its share of problems.
13:40We are a C-rated school.
13:42We made some gains last year.
13:44We're excited that we're going to probably make some gains this year.
13:48Obviously, we want to be a B, and we want to ultimately be an A.
13:52I'm proud of what we're doing here.
13:57That progress isn't enough for Norman Browning,
14:00the leader of the St. George campaign.
14:02Our children aren't getting an education.
14:04They're failing our children because our children are not getting the education they deserve.
14:09Browning says that years of busing stemming from the Civil Rights era
14:13have destroyed the sense of community for a lot of Baton Rouge schools.
14:18Parents want schools that their children can go to in their neighborhood.
14:23I'm against transporting children out of the neighborhood
14:27to go clear across town to go to school.
14:32I can look back to my school years, the neighborhood schools,
14:38and being sent to the principal's office,
14:42and the principal's saying,
14:44Boy, you want me to call your daddy?
14:48You know, because, you know what?
14:50I knew he knew my father.
14:52It's about bringing community back.
14:55It's about bringing schools back to our community.
15:01He's no stranger to Woodlawn High.
15:04Close to 15 years I volunteered coached at Woodlawn High School.
15:07So my involvement with this campaign really stems from what I've saw from the inside.
15:14The lack of control in the classrooms, the lack of control in the halls.
15:20The school has been plagued with discipline issues.
15:2261 arrests in 2013.
15:25These are the things that just totally disrupt other students
15:30who are there to get an education.
15:32Students have even posted videos of fights on YouTube.
15:39Browning's group seized on them in a scathing ad.
15:42The principal doesn't have the proper people in there to control the students.
15:47They're babysitting them.
15:49They're not educating them.
15:51They're babysitting them.
15:53We've been described as a zoo, even.
15:57When you put 1,200 kids in a building with over 90 faculty members,
16:01you're going to have conflict.
16:02That's part of it.
16:03That's the nature of it.
16:04So I take offense to people who say this is a dangerous school.
16:10And I really get a little upset when individuals from outside our school
16:15characterize us that way and they've never stepped foot in our school.
16:20Well, I'm a parent of two kids in public schools.
16:23I'm concerned about discipline also.
16:24That doesn't mean I want to essentially secede from the union.
16:28I want to, you know, work with the principals, work with the parents,
16:31and let's see what the problems are.
16:33Des Moines Rutledge is the school district's attorney
16:36and was involved in Baton Rouge's desegregation efforts.
16:40He says the schools overall have been improving,
16:43and it's not busing that's been a problem.
16:46It's that white families have been leaving.
16:49You know, it's a question of almost which came first, the chicken or the egg,
16:52because without the force busing, you probably would not have had the white flight.
16:56However, you probably would have still had for too long a period of time
17:01a system that was not desegregated, which was the mandate.
17:06We've got to desegregate these schools,
17:08and we've got to have everybody embrace the concept that regardless of color,
17:12we can go to school together and get along and get educated.
17:17That's exactly the opportunity Nikki Dangerfield's kids are taking advantage of.
17:22She says the East Baton Rouge Paris school system may not be perfect,
17:26but it gives them options.
17:28My three boys go to three different middle schools.
17:31The reason being, each school caters to them.
17:36Aaron is in the gifted program.
17:37He goes to one of the middle schools that have the best gifted program in Baton Rouge.
17:45Zephaniah goes to a school that has smaller classroom settings because that's what he needs.
17:52Caleb is in performing arts,
17:54so he goes to McKinley Middle, that is a performing arts school.
18:01But if the new city of St. George happens,
18:04many of the district's schools would become part of it,
18:07including Woodlawn High,
18:09which is where Aaron would like to go,
18:11because despite its problems,
18:13it's rated better than the high school in his neighborhood.
18:17I'd like to go to Woodlawn High because it has a gifted program and a football team,
18:21so I can be able to play high school football
18:23at the same time as I focus on my work in school.
18:27I want a high school that has sports programs
18:30and has, like, science programs and technology programs.
18:36Dangerfield's oldest daughter, Joy, was her high school valedictorian.
18:40Today, she's a student at LSU.
18:43My mom was talking to me about the school choices for my little brother Aaron,
18:48and, you know, she was telling me how much he wanted to attend Woodlawn High.
18:54You can't master the game unless you put it on all manner.
18:58My mom talked to the secretary,
19:01and she explained to her that, you know,
19:04he couldn't attend that school because he doesn't live in that area,
19:07and then that they were pulling away.
19:10And so she told my little brother Aaron,
19:12and he was really upset because he was like,
19:14well, Mom, that's the only school I want to go to.
19:16Hey!
19:20If St. George happened,
19:22they're going to take the better schools with them.
19:25You're no longer giving other kids a choice.
19:29It's not just that kids like Aaron wouldn't be able to enroll at Woodlawn.
19:34There's fear that some students already enrolled there,
19:37many of them poor and minorities, could be asked to leave.
19:40I would assume that if boundaries change,
19:44there may be some students who would no longer attend this school.
19:48Certainly as principal of Woodlawn High School,
19:50I want to attract students to our school
19:53as opposed to losing any students.
19:55So it would be sad.
20:01I'm sorry.
20:03I'm sorry.
20:05I'm sorry.
20:14Because as principal,
20:18you grow attached to every student you have.
20:22And I would hate to see anyone leave.
20:25So the saddest thing to me
20:28would be for kids
20:31to not have the opportunity
20:33to express their own opinions
20:35about where they want to go to school.
20:40East Baton Rouge Parish
20:41was probably the best public school system
20:45in the 60s and early 70s.
20:48State Senator Bode White
20:49has already helped another neighborhood
20:51split off and form its own school system.
20:55He's a longtime opponent of federally mandated busing.
20:59The federal government,
21:01through their actions,
21:03I think the forced busing,
21:05it just destroyed the school system.
21:09The fight to desegregate the Baton Rouge schools
21:11was one of the longest in the nation.
21:14For 15 years, beginning in 1981,
21:17the school district was forced to bus its children
21:20to achieve integration.
21:21And I'll use me as an example.
21:23I had a choice
21:24to put my five-year-old daughter
21:26on a school bus
21:27and give her an hour bus ride
21:29to a school
21:31that was two to three years
21:33behind the national average in testing.
21:35Busing children
21:36forced the middle class
21:38and upper middle class families
21:40to drop out of public education.
21:43You saw a mass exodus
21:45of white families
21:47from the school system.
21:49Unfortunately,
21:50too many of them decided
21:52we fear the unknown
21:54and we're not going to do it.
21:57Today, while there is no federally forced busing,
22:01parents can still have their children
22:03bused to better schools
22:04around Baton Rouge.
22:06With the St. George proposal,
22:08Rutledge is worried Baton Rouge
22:09is taking a step backwards.
22:12The end result of that
22:14is it excludes children.
22:16And those children are minority children.
22:18Those children are black children.
22:20We have done a full-throttle reversal
22:23in this community.
22:24And we are resegregating
22:26our school system.
22:27The issue has become
22:29deeply divisive.
22:30When I read headlines
22:31such as the fact
22:33that this is nothing
22:33but a succession
22:34to get away
22:35from the low-income citizens
22:38as well as
22:40making it a race issue,
22:41it's extremely disturbing to me.
22:44This is nothing more
22:45than a middle-class community
22:48incorporating a city.
22:51We appreciate it.
22:52Yes, ma'am.
22:52Yes, I've been called a racist.
22:56In no uncertain terms,
22:57I'm not a racist.
23:00I'm not going to try
23:01and attempt to defend it.
23:02What I do is I let my actions speak
23:04and how I conduct myself
23:06and how I treat people speak.
23:08The St. George advocates
23:10argue that the racial
23:11and financial implications
23:13of their plan
23:13are being exaggerated.
23:16But the opponents point
23:17to a 2013 analysis
23:19by LSU economists,
23:21which predicts
23:22the new city
23:23would be around 70% white
23:26and leave Baton Rouge
23:27with a big annual deficit.
23:31People who do things
23:32that have racial implications
23:33always say that race
23:34has nothing to do with it.
23:36I mean, I'm not judging
23:37what their personal motivations are,
23:39but nobody ever says
23:41we intentionally
23:42just want to discriminate
23:43when they do something
23:44that will have the effect
23:46of deepening inequality.
23:50Despite the opposition,
23:51the petition to make
23:53St. George a reality
23:54is picking up steam.
23:56At the end of 2013,
23:58the group said it had
23:59over 9,000 signatures,
24:02half of what's needed
24:03to get the issue
24:03put on a ballot.
24:04My pleasure to meet you.
24:06We can't tell you
24:06how much we appreciate you.
24:07The Reverend C.L. Bryant,
24:09a Tea Party activist,
24:10came to Baton Rouge
24:11to support
24:12the St. George movement.
24:13Father and our God,
24:15we ask you now
24:16to watch over
24:17these faithful men
24:18as they try to bring
24:20into existence
24:20and call that thing
24:22which be not
24:22as though it were
24:24a new city
24:25in this great land
24:26that you have given us,
24:27America.
24:28Thank you for it.
24:29Amen.
24:35Hello, my fellow
24:36Louisianians.
24:39You have, I believe,
24:40a very unique opportunity.
24:43You have people
24:44who want to divide us
24:47down racial lines.
24:50You must do what is right
24:52for your pocketbook
24:54and don't you be afraid
24:57of what they call you.
25:00Don't you allow anyone
25:01to turn you back
25:03from that.
25:05Americans,
25:06I would ask you
25:07to stand up.
25:09Stand up!
25:13Happy to see
25:14all of you here tonight.
25:16These folks
25:17are trying to do
25:18what's right
25:18and as we go
25:21through this campaign,
25:24there's a lot of pressure.
25:26There'll be a lot of folks
25:27trying to scare you.
25:29That's the name
25:30of the game.
25:31It's called intimidation.
25:33The middle class
25:34in this parish,
25:36you're taking back
25:38control of your kids
25:39and your destiny.
25:41This evening made me very sad
25:44that basically they're now
25:45talking about this
25:46in terms of income
25:48and that it's okay
25:49to segregate yourself
25:50from poor people
25:51and that it is okay
25:53for you to do
25:55what is right
25:56for your pocketbook
25:57without thinking
25:58about your entire community
25:59and the people
26:01that you're harming
26:01in the process.
26:02It was very sad.
26:09This group of white parents
26:11want to have
26:12the best for their children
26:13and forget about
26:15anybody else.
26:16State Representative
26:17Patricia Smith
26:18has been a vocal opponent
26:19of the effort
26:20to create
26:20the new school district.
26:23The proponents
26:24of the school district
26:25don't like to hear this,
26:26but it's totally
26:28going to be segregation.
26:29When you look
26:30at the children
26:30who will be removed
26:31from the East Baton Rouge
26:33Parish School system,
26:34children who are going
26:36to go into this
26:36new St. George,
26:38the majority of children
26:39are white,
26:40and the majority
26:41of children
26:42that will be removed
26:42from St. George
26:43will be black.
26:45Do you think
26:46that you have to
26:47bus children all over,
26:49bus them long distance,
26:50so you can say
26:51you sit in a seat
26:53next to someone
26:53diverse,
26:54different from yourself?
26:55The Justice Department,
26:57you know,
26:57they achieved their goal.
26:58Who can say
26:58we're not desegregated?
27:00We have an
27:01African-American president.
27:02We have an
27:03African-American mayor
27:05here in Baton Rouge
27:06with a majority
27:07white in the parish.
27:09We've been through
27:10all that.
27:11We need to let us
27:12go back and rebuild
27:13our schools now.
27:15I believe that folks
27:16are beginning to
27:17get in their heads.
27:19Many conservatives
27:19are saying,
27:20we have a black president,
27:21so we don't have
27:22to worry about
27:23anything else
27:24dealing with black folk
27:25across the country.
27:26That is not true.
27:28We're now beginning
27:29to realize that
27:30you can never stop
27:32the fight
27:32for racial equality.
27:34You can never
27:34stop that fight.
27:38I think Baton Rouge
27:39as a whole
27:40will suffer,
27:42not just our school.
27:44And I don't think
27:45that people
27:47should have the right
27:48to change history.
27:52They are taking
27:53resources from people
27:54that need them
27:55the most.
27:57All schools
27:58should be created
27:59equal.
28:03The St. George
28:04advocates say
28:04they are getting
28:05close to their goal
28:06and are within
28:07a few thousand
28:07signatures of getting
28:08on the ballot
28:09later this year.
28:12This can be wonderful
28:13for all of us,
28:14for our families.
28:16We can have
28:17a great city
28:18of St. George.
28:21It doesn't mean
28:22it has to hurt
28:23the city of Baton Rouge.
28:26The only one
28:27that's going to hurt
28:27the city of Baton Rouge
28:28is Baton Rouge.
28:33I'm tired of hearing
28:35the remarks
28:36in the news media
28:37and in the paper
28:38about how it's going
28:39to destroy
28:40East Baton Rouge Parish,
28:41how it's going to
28:42destroy Baton Rouge.
28:45The only way
28:46that happens
28:46is if they let it.
28:49Months later,
28:50in mid-May,
28:51the city council
28:52would pass a measure
28:53designed to stop
28:54the St. George petition
28:55and the group
28:57has vowed
28:57to fight back
28:58in court.
29:01We've got
29:02a wonderful opportunity
29:03here.
29:05The state capitol
29:06can't stop this.
29:08The city council
29:09can't stop this.
29:11Mayor Holland
29:12can't stop this
29:13as long as we want it.
29:31think so much.
29:46so long as we
29:48Coming up next on Frontline, as a teen, Omerina was part of an innovative program to prevent
29:54her from dropping out of school.
29:56Omerina really struggles with the opportunities she has.
29:59Did it work?
30:00I can't just think about all the things that are going wrong.
30:03I just think about the things that might be going right.
30:06Omerina's story begins right now.
30:44It's the last day of the semester.
30:46She's a master at the Brooks School, an exclusive private academy in North Andover, Massachusetts.
30:54Omerina Cabrera is halfway through her sophomore year.
30:59I remember first getting here.
31:00It definitely was an adjustment.
31:03We pray for our families.
31:05A lot of kids here are very wealthy and well-off, and their parents are very important people.
31:10I go back to an apartment, a two-bedroom apartment in the middle of the Bronx.
31:14And we pray for our school, that we may always be a home for innocence and truth.
31:20And then I come here.
31:21The environment is definitely a shock.
31:26That she made it here at all is surprising.
31:29Without the help of a groundbreaking program in middle school, she probably wouldn't have.
31:36We've been following Omerina since 2012, when we began examining the dropout crisis in America's
31:42high-poverty schools.
31:44At that time, she was a student at middle school 244 in the Bronx, and she had been struggling.
31:52My first year here, me and my mom, we got evicted.
31:56I felt shattered.
31:58That was a home that I had for my whole life, and I grew up there.
32:03I didn't know what was going to happen next.
32:05That period of not knowing wasn't something that I felt comfortable with.
32:10I felt this inkling in me that I would never want my children or anyone else to experience
32:18this.
32:19Shuffled between relatives' apartments, some without even electricity, Omerina suffered
32:24another loss.
32:25When I was really young, my father walked out for whatever reason.
32:30I finally got in touch with him.
32:32Just before we were about to talk and I was about to go see him, he had gotten a stroke.
32:37And I had to leave to the Dominican Republic and see my father for the first time, and it
32:42wasn't a casket.
32:45With her home life in chaos, Omerina's school life began to suffer.
32:50She didn't know it, but she was starting down a path that so many other young people take.
32:55Every year, over a million students failed to finish high school.
33:01But Omerina was lucky.
33:03Her school had recently implemented an experimental program designed to catch faltering students
33:08like her.
33:09Even kids in the most dire circumstances really want a future.
33:13They just need to have a path to it.
33:15Robert Balfanz, one of the nation's top education researchers, had been searching for that path
33:21for 15 years by studying kids who were dropping out of high school.
33:26Then he realized that the key moment when kids begin to go off track was actually in middle school.
33:34What does that refer to?
33:37Stephanie?
33:38When a nine divides the parabola into two equal parts.
33:42If in the middle grades you've developed habits of not coming to school regularly, of getting
33:46in trouble, or failing your courses, you bring that with you to high school, and the schools
33:50aren't designed to help them succeed.
33:52In search of the warning signs that could help schools identify their most at-risk students,
33:57Balfanz and his team harvested data from dozens of high-poverty schools.
34:03Schools where at least 40% of the kids qualify for government-subsidized lunch.
34:12We looked at about 40 different variables, and we put that into a big statistical analysis
34:17and said we want factors that are highly reliable and also yield a large number of kids in trouble.
34:24And within this chaotic tangle of data, several important indicators stood out.
34:31And basically out of this mix, four came out really strong.
34:34And that was our sort of eureka moment.
34:37I saw kids waving their hands saying, help, help me stay on track.
34:44The data showed that if a sixth-grade child in a high-poverty school is absent more than 20%
34:49of the time, or fails math or English, or receives an unsatisfactory behavior grade in a core course,
34:58there is a 75% chance that they will drop out of high school, unless there is decisive intervention.
35:05It may seem far less than rocket science, but it's something that, in fact, schools,
35:09by and large, have not paid attention to.
35:11But middle school 244 did.
35:15At the direction of Principal Dolores Peterson, it became one of the first schools in the nation
35:20to put Balfanz's theories into action.
35:23The Balfanz research was so interesting to us, because we looked at it and we said,
35:30this is a great way to identify our students at a very early stage.
35:36Students like Omerina, who had been showing up late or not at all.
35:41At the beginning, I felt alone and I felt ashamed and I didn't want to speak to anyone
35:45about it.
35:46I just isolated myself from everything and everyone.
35:51But the data spoke for Omerina.
35:56Every week at middle school 244, statistics are collected and reviewed by a team of counselors
36:02and teachers.
36:04Attendance.
36:05Everyone's with me?
36:06Yes.
36:07Let's go to 802.
36:08Omerina.
36:10How is Omerina doing?
36:12The students most in need are flagged.
36:14Currently, her mother's not even in the United States right now.
36:18She was in the shelter not that long ago.
36:20Then they were evicted, so she's having to go between relatives.
36:25A counselor is assigned and an intervention is organized.
36:28I took her home one day and it's a double commute.
36:33It's a bus, a train, it's on the other side of the world, you can say.
36:37I can't tell you how much I worry every time she leaves this building.
36:40When she leaves this building, you know, she's on her own.
36:43Our students face challenges sometimes that young children shouldn't have to face.
36:49And they need that support of the adult to help them through it.
36:53It's all going to work out.
36:54Catherine Miller was Omerina's homeroom teacher.
36:57So once Omerina was identified, it was imperative on my part as a homeroom teacher in consultation
37:02with the guidance counselor and administration to discuss why she was coming in late so many times.
37:09They came to me and they asked me, what's wrong?
37:11You've been late a lot.
37:13Something has to be wrong.
37:14And that's when I told Ms. Miller that I was evicted.
37:17Your mother needs to feel safe or she needs to feel good about where you are, as do you.
37:23And the best we can do right now.
37:25We can compile thousands of numbers about who's failing this or who's passing that.
37:29But if there's no response to that data, if there's no initiative taken to understand that data, it's all for
37:36naught.
37:37It became clear that a chaotic home life was the source of Omerina's problems at school, and she needed targeted
37:44practical support.
37:45You're going to take this one today.
37:48The team helped her figure out routes to school from ever-changing addresses, got her a bus pass and books.
37:55Ms. Miller told me that I can work through it, that I'm strong enough, that I have the courage to
38:00do it.
38:00And the fact that she believed in me, I believed in me, and that's something that not a lot of
38:05people go through.
38:08They needed an adult counterforce.
38:10Someone to say, did you get your work done?
38:11Let me make sure you understand it.
38:13And also to deal with, like, I know you're having trouble with this teacher or that teacher.
38:17Are these kids?
38:18Let's work it out.
38:18Let's solve it now.
38:20It's that sense of shepherding is what the kids need to know that an adult not only cares, but the
38:25adult can actually help them.
38:27How's it going at home?
38:29It is good.
38:30It's not completely settled because of my mom, but I think it's calmer than before.
38:37My first year here, I had a lot of different things going on.
38:41I had my brother, who was so smart, and he was just like me.
38:45He's my twin.
38:46My brother began to be exposed to a lot of the things that were out there, and not only him,
38:52but a lot of us were.
38:54Not a lot of kids make the right choice, and that's happened a lot of times in the Bronx for
38:58a lot of people.
38:59In the summer after sixth grade, Omarina's twin brother, Omarlin, started hanging out on the streets and getting in trouble.
39:06His mother had him moved to another school, thinking he'd be safer in a different neighborhood.
39:11But when we met him at the end of eighth grade, Omarlin was rarely attending school, and his high school
39:17plans were uncertain.
39:18When am I going to go to high school?
39:20I don't know.
39:22I haven't gotten my letter yet.
39:30The fact that he got involved with the streets, and the fact that he let the neighborhood influence him,
39:36he just began slipping off the mountains, slipping off, slipping off, slipping off.
39:52It really was a difficult time for me.
39:54However, I think the only reason I got through it was because of the support people bring to me, Miss
39:58Miller and my guidance counselor.
40:00The fact that they told me you're bright and you're special and drove me and encouraged me.
40:05They told me never to quit and never let your dreams end at the corner of Sedgwick Avenue.
40:10I don't think I will be where I am today.
40:17And I wish my brother could have gone on the journey with me as well.
40:23Soon, Omarina had achieved near-perfect attendance and had an average in the 90s.
40:27My senior is not a quadratic.
40:29Who agrees and why?
40:32Omarina.
40:34Because when you solve negative B over to A to get the vertex...
40:38And her teachers encouraged her to apply to some of the nation's best high schools.
40:43I thought that was your best essay.
40:44Read it to me again.
40:45I love it.
40:47Typically, young adults look upon a political figure or someone in their life for guidance and support.
40:53I, on the other hand, seem to find this inspiration within a black and white street sign.
40:57And printed on the signs are the words, one way.
41:01It taunts me with an inevitable reminder that coming in is not the obstacle, but making it out.
41:10I don't think that me and my brother are on the same road, and I think he fell off, and
41:13that's really sad.
41:19The way you take him to school is important.
41:21He did it, and that's why we're going on different paths, I guess.
41:28Any school can use this system to keep kids on track.
41:32And what's going to vary from school to school is the extent they're going to need to recruit an outside
41:37second shift of adults to help.
41:38And that's going to really just depend on the sheer number of kids.
41:43There are now more schools with intervention programs like middle school 244s than when we filmed there two years ago.
41:50But they are still very rare in America's high-poverty communities.
41:56That's what makes it so interesting with my brother.
41:58I think that's what I would be.
42:00I would be not in the school, and I think I would be, I wouldn't care.
42:07And the fact that I would get into a college wouldn't be that big of a deal.
42:12And the fact that I go on to high school, that wouldn't matter to me.
42:17I can get my GED later. That's what I would say.
42:21As middle school was coming to an end, Omarina learned she'd been accepted at nine competitive high schools.
42:29Omarina, I'm so excited for you. So what did you decide? Which school did you choose?
42:35After giving it a lot of thought, I went with Brooks.
42:38So are you excited?
42:38Yeah.
42:39I know I am.
42:41How does it feel, Ms. Miller?
42:43It's very humbling, and I'm incredibly proud of your accomplishments.
42:50Oh, Ms. Miller, you're going to make me cry.
42:55Aw, come here. This is awkward.
43:04It was a momentous achievement for a girl who was at risk of becoming one of Balfanz's statistics just two
43:10years earlier.
43:16Now it was off to the elite learning environment of Brooks, where both the students and the expectations would be
43:23very different than what she was used to.
43:25The question was, would all the work in middle school pay off here?
43:30So we've been keeping track of how Omarina, and by comparison, her brother Omarlin, have been doing.
43:37When I first came here, I was nervous that I was way too different to fit in here.
43:42There was a senior who greeted us at the door. She smelled like strawberries.
43:47Everyone is really well off, and there's people on their vacation. They travel to Argentina, and they travel to China.
43:59So, yeah, there's times when you notice little subtle comments or little subtle, like, things that aren't really even meant
44:06for people who don't even mean to say them or do them.
44:09But they just happen. They just come out because people aren't aware or people haven't been exposed to certain things.
44:15I think they are genuinely curious, and they genuinely want to know how I do my hair every morning.
44:20Or, do I think in Spanish? Or, I don't know, was I born here?
44:27Brooks School is not the same school that she came from in New York.
44:30It certainly does not have the same kind of ethnic makeup as what she's used to.
44:34So she has, I think, fell out of place at times here.
44:38It might be hard at times, and it might feel impossible to change everyone's mind about what a girl from
44:45the Bronx should look like or should act like.
44:47I feel like it's important to try so that they don't make others feel as uncomfortable as they made me.
44:53In this new environment, the pressure on Omarina isn't just social.
44:58In the beginning, she says, she struggled to keep up in class.
45:04For the first half of the semester, I kept getting these horrible grades.
45:07I didn't understand why.
45:08Look at the last digit.
45:11I remember getting my first quiz back and almost throwing up because I had a 16%.
45:19And I think that was the moment when I realized, yeah, I'm not getting by if I don't work really,
45:24really, really hard.
45:26During those times when, you know, it feels like a little bit too much, not even just socially, but academically
45:32as well.
45:33And there are those times at Brooks. There are those meltdowns.
45:37I feel like I do have a strong faculty to support me. I have the help of Mrs. Ware. I
45:43have Ms. Miller who is always with me regardless of where I am.
45:50Mrs. Miller, I call her Mama Miller.
45:51Good morning.
45:52Morning.
45:53What classes do you have this morning?
45:55I have algebra 2.
45:56She's seen me grow up.
45:58Then I have a chem test.
45:59And...
45:59How did you study for the chem test?
46:01Just went over my notes.
46:02I'm very, very, very, very, very fortunate to have her.
46:07I felt that Izzo was really imperative to keep very constant contact.
46:12Okay, bye, Ms. Miller, I love you.
46:13Just to make sure that the adjustment was going well, but also knowing that, you know, many people were rooting
46:18for her to be successful here in the Bronx.
46:20You're messing with me. Don't take away my memory that I have. Don't you dare do that to me.
46:26I messed up. I messed up.
46:28She was determined to succeed, and the teachers at Brooks saw her potential.
46:32What do you need to do to get better?
46:34I can memorize my lines.
46:35Okay, that's the nuts and bolts, yeah.
46:37Come back later today, and I will have a...
46:39I had four different parents, had my advisor, had all my teachers, always making sure I was okay, always constantly
46:44there.
46:46Awesome, thanks.
46:46Omarina is not the kind of kid that lets mediocrity rule.
46:50She's not happy with that at all, and so she gets kind of feisty and angry and wants to fix
46:55it.
46:55And so it's been great to kind of watch that growth in her and watch her kind of come into
47:00her own that way.
47:01Yes.
47:02I feel like I've widened my perspective so much being here.
47:06I've seen so much.
47:08I've seen too much almost to go back to how I was talking and living and acting.
47:13And if you see me in the street, I don't think you'd recognize me.
47:16So what if I asked you to graph this thing that's changing over time?
47:22Well, zero is there, so it would go away from it, so it wouldn't be negative.
47:26Start negative, zero, positive, zero, negative.
47:29I caught up and I got good midterm grants.
47:32I'm excited about that.
47:34I'm proud.
47:34Blessed be God.
47:36Blessed be our life together.
47:39Blessed be our food this night and our fellowship.
47:42We ask these things in God's name.
47:45Amen.
47:49Have a great time tonight at the dance.
47:52You look amazing.
47:59After my freshman year, my sophomore year, now this is a good year.
48:04You're kind of just floating.
48:09I just need to keep looking ahead and just keep going, keep moving a step at a time.
48:17But just as Omarina was getting on track at Brooks, she received a disturbing call.
48:23It was a Tuesday morning.
48:25I feel like you know when something is wrong.
48:29I couldn't ignore the feeling that I had in my stomach.
48:33Why are we so powerless to save the people we love?
48:38There was news of her twin brother, Omarlyn.
48:42I immediately thought, is he dead?
48:44Just tell me if he's dead.
48:46I want to tell you why he did it.
48:48Omarlyn had been shot.
48:54Police said the shooter fled the scene.
48:57Her brother survived and was recovering at home.
49:00I was scared and sad and disappointed and worried.
49:05But I can't show that to him.
49:09I feel like, and it is hard sometimes, but I can't show him that I'm scared.
49:15I can't show him that I'm sad or I'm disappointed because he doesn't need that.
49:20He needs someone there to be strong for him.
49:22That someone most often has to be Omarina herself because their mother is frequently not at home.
49:29There was no question that she was going to go down and be with her family.
49:34Omarina really struggles with the opportunities she has at Brooks and kind of this path that's been laid out for
49:39her.
49:43You really saw the disparities in the world that she balances in that moment where she was so concerned about
49:50his safety and his family and making sure someone was going to be there for him because her mother was
49:54out of town.
49:56And she knows that her brother is kind of stuck at home in this world that's full of vices and
50:03difficulty.
50:05I think that with that guilt comes feeling more responsible and feeling like she wants to do everything she can
50:12to help.
50:16So Omarina makes regular trips home to the Bronx, juggling the competing demands of her schoolwork and her sense of
50:23responsibility to her brother.
50:27Hey!
50:35Where were you?
50:40I tried very hard not to ever cry in front of him.
50:43I hope he does realize that I do care and that's why I do the things I do and that's
50:47why I always nag him.
50:49Did you get transferred or are you still in the process? What's going to happen with that?
50:53I don't know. I'm just waiting.
50:55Oh. Is that going to take long, right?
50:57I don't know. I hope not.
50:59When it first started was seventh grade when his education got hurt because he began, you know, getting involved in
51:08something he didn't involved.
51:08It made me uncertain and it made me worry because I know where this is headed.
51:14I mean, I don't think, I think everyone knows where this is headed and people can be ignorant to it,
51:19but I know where this is headed and what he needs is intervention.
51:22Oh, Marlon is reluctant to talk about what's going on in his life or about the bullet that could have
51:28ended it.
51:28I'm playing from this way into my arms, under my upper ribs on the left side, close to my heart.
51:38You know, I could have died, so I thank God that I'm not dead and I could still be here.
51:47So I just have fun. I know she's going to have a bright future, too, because she go to school,
51:53she got her scholarship.
51:58So, that's good.
52:03You know, I have to have a good life, find a good job, and kids, and be married.
52:18So, while O'Marina is finishing her sophomore year at Brooks, O'Marlon, who is 16 years old, is still in the
52:25ninth grade.
52:27At the time of filming, he had only shown up for school five times all year.
52:32We actually know that kids are resilient, and so it still makes a sense to have strong recovery efforts in
52:38high school
52:39and strong high school reform efforts, and you'll still be able to turn kids around and put them back on
52:42track.
52:43But it gets much harder.
52:45In late February 2014, O'Marlon was charged with carrying a knife.
52:51Two weeks later, he was charged with possession of ecstasy and marijuana.
52:55The cases are pending.
52:57I handle stress in different ways.
52:59When I get to Brooks, I use it as almost my getaway.
53:05I can't just think and think and think and think about all the things that are going wrong.
53:10I just think of other things that might be going right, you know?
53:26Go to pbs.org slash frontline for more on the debate over community schools.
53:31It's about bringing schools back to our community.
53:34How segregated are American schools today?
53:37Find out more.
53:38And watch our 2012 film on the middle school moment.
53:41What if you could change the future for kids on a fast track to dropping out of school?
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