top-performing school. yeah, there is a lot wrong with it, which is why we re working with the school to help them to meet the numbers. and they really need to do that in order to keep their funding. reporter: prasad is on a path to higher education. 100% of capital prep graduates go on to a four-year college. her mother s concerned that her sister, nicole, may not have the same chance. reporting for in america, soledad o brien, cnn. our cnn documentary, don t fail me: education in america examines this crisis in america s public education and why america s financial future is at risk if students can t excel in math and science. don t miss the full report premium earring sunday at 8:00 right here on cnn eastern. [ male announcer ] diane was already the chief operating officer at a national tissue bank when she decided to get her masters
they could lose funding. they said we will shut you down if you don t get enough white people. reporter: so he targeted white communities in places like avon where the public schools outperform others throughout the state. isn t it great to have diversity and 25% of the school white kids, since you have 75% of the school black kids? well, i think that there s a lot to it. i don t think it is an issue of being right or wrong. it s more nuanced than that. which wouldn t mean anything if they had other options. reporter: the connecticut board of education concedes that there is irony in threatening to pull funding for a top-performing school. yeah, a lot wrong wit, which is why we are working with the school to help them meet the numbers, and they really need to do that in order to keep their funding. reporter: this student is on a path to higher education, and 100% of capital prep graduates go on to a four-year college,
path to excellence. 13-year-old eric hall is in the seventh grade at orchard gardens, one of boston s poorest performing schools. he says he s seen a lot since he started there in kindergarten. i ve seen different teachers, different principals. i ve seen students come and go. reporter: but this year is different. now it s gym, writing, reading, math, pretty much i m pretty much enjoying all of my classes. reporter: that s because orchard gardens is one of 5,000 schools around the country getting millions of dollars from the federal government to turn around. the goal, become a top-performing school. we first visited the principal last september just before the school year started. we need to do something bold. we need to really restart orchard guardens. he hand picked his staff to replace the 80% that he fired. the turnaround rules mandate he replace at least half. he also has $3.7 million in grants to help him over the next three years. seven months into the year with s
a crisis in american education. the race is on to transform terrible schools into top performers. president obama is taking drastic steps. his administration shelling out millions to fix the country s worst schools. cnn s suzanne malveaux visited a school in boston that s receiving some of that money. officials there say their once troubled school is now on the path to excellence. 13-year-old eric hall is in the seventh grade at orchard gardens, one of boston s poorest performing schools. he says he s seen a lot since he started there in kindergarten. i ve seen different teachers, different principals. i ve seen students come and go. reporter: but this year is different. now it s gym, writing, reading, math, pretty much i m pretty much enjoying all of my classes. reporter: that s because orchard gardens is one of 5,000 schools around the country getting millions of dollars from the federal government to turn around. the goal, become a top-performing school.
i have seen different princi come and go. now it s reading, writing, math. that s because it s one of 5,000 schools around the country getting millions of dollars from the federal government to turn around. the goal, to become a top-performing school. we visited last september just before the school year started. we need to do something bold. we need to really restart orchard garden. he hand-picked his staff to replace the 80% he fired. the turnaround rules mandate he replace half. and he also got grants to help him over the next three years. seven months 2into the year whee standardized test scores coming up, we checked back. i didn t know we could advance so far.