it s a story that made national headlines. schools across the country are facing huge budget deficits. kansas city recently announced its plan to close 26 public schools. and just this week detroit followed suit with a proposal to shut down 45 schools. but as allan chernoff reports, there are some school success stories in detroit that could be used as a model for districts around the country. reporter: violin lessons for everyone begin in third grade. mandarin chinese is mandatory beginning in kindergarten, and individualized computer challenges reinforce what s taught in the classroom. in a city plagued with academic underachievement cornerstone schools, one private and two charter schools that are part of the private system, are overachievers. students on average test a year
enrollment and massive debt and some of the highest dropout numbers in the country. it s not all bad in the city s classrooms. alan chernoff is looking at the group of schools that are actually getting it right. reporter: violin lessons for everyone begin in third grade. mandarin chinese is mandatory beginning in kindergarten and computer challenges reinforce what s taught in the classroom. cornerstone schools, one private and two charter schools part of the public system are overachievers, students on average test a year above grade level at 95 go on to graduate high school. students here come with no special vapg advantages, half live below the poverty line. fourth grader preently transferred from public school to corner stone. at my old school, nobody really cared.
reporter: violin lessons for everyone begin in third grade. mandarin chinese is mandatory beginning in kindergarten and individualized computer challenges reinforce what s taught in a classroom. in a city plagued with academic underachievement, cornerstone schools one prief and the two charter schools that are pat of the public system are over achievers. students on average test a year above grade level and 95% go on to graduate high school. students here come with no special advantages. half live below the poverty line. fourth grader caitlin rogers recently transferred public school to cornerstone. at my old school nobody really cared and they d fall asleep in the classroom. at cornerstone, students, teachers and parents care enough that the school year is 11 months long. i only get one month this summer vacation. does that bother you? not really when you get the chance to learn about the school because it s actually fun at the