school, no matter what. >> he's tremendously at risk. it's a big push for him to graduate on time right now. >> i think she's been in class about five times in five weeks. >> life is life, school is school. school and life are two different things. >> if i go to college, that's a big, big step for my whole family. >> a look at the struggles... >> you turn your back on me! you don't even appreciate what i do for you! >> ...the challenges... >> this isn't the streets. he wants to press charges right now. >> ...and the triumphs... >> together we can. >> whatever it takes. >> no excuses. >> ...of "dropout nation." >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. and by reva and david logan, committed to investigative journalism as the guardian of the public interest. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by tfrontline journalism fund, with grantsa1 from susan hunter and douglas watson, and scott nathan and laura debonis. major funding for "dropout nation" is provided by american graduate: let's make it happen, a public media initiative made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. >> (on intercom): good morning, apollos! today is day 109. it is thursday, february 2. at this time, we ask that you stand as we honor america and texas with our pledges. >> c'mon, guys, straight to 140, you're late. detention, you've got to get to school on time. stop, don't even try it. go to 140. make sure black adidas jacket with white stripes down the sleeves comes in there. he's trying to escape. uh-uh! our attendance is really low, and so we're trying to do whatever it takes to get them to know that it's important to be here for homeroom, first period, second period, every period. >> ids, have them out. >> we're a school of about 1,300 kids. we're mostly hispanic and african american, but the common denominator is poverty. our kids come from some pretty crappy conditions in and around houston. it has been a school that maybe people forgot about over the years. it has had a terrible reputation. "it's all ghetto there," and, "that's where the pregnant girls go." it's called a dropout factory. i mean, those numbers don't lie. the pressure is to get better. so we're still working to change that culture. >> why do you want to drop out? why are you leaving? why don't you like school? >> hey, look at him when you talk to him. >> okay, first of all, i don't understand why you think you're gonna not go to school-- you're only 16. what does that mean? >> he had it planned in his mind that when he turned 17, then 18, he was gonna drop out and there was nothing... and that's the sad thing, is they feel when they turn 18, we can't touch them. where you gonna live at? gonna live with your mom? >> yeah. >> for the rest of the your life? are you gonna work? i'm asking you, you gonna work? hello? you have a plan? why don't you want an education, sweetie? you want to talk to me privately? >> take him. you can talk to miss washington. >> and so i had to break down, you know, what you are gonna do? where are you gonna live? where are you... "i'm gonna live with my mom." and then, after a while, when we broke it down, that's not where he wants to be. and if he does, and when he does graduate, he will be the first one in his family to graduate high school. >> so you saved one today? >> yes! (laughing) one of many. always putting out fires. >> we are going to get marcus this morning. marcus is failing both of his first and second period classes. he usually doesn't get here until about third or fourth period. he has, like, a 28 average in spanish, and he needs spanish to graduate. there's a lot of students that, you know, i either text or call them to make sure they're up to get to school, because a lot of them don't have transportation or even an adult in their life that can help them with those kind of things that they're not prepared to deal with. it's all a part of sharpstown. oh my god. this is so close to the school. this is a joke. it's not even a block! there he is. i am going to give you a piece of my mind! >> oh, shoot! >> you hear me? how far do you think you are from the school? >> it's, like, five minutes? >> it's not even five minutes. >> i usually miss the first and second period. i got to my first period class and did some work. the classes i'm here, as and bs. >> and the classes you're not here for? >> yeah, them fs. i don't go because it bores me sometimes. that's why i go home early. i go to school half a day and then just walk off, go home. >> what time did you go to bed? >> like 2:00-something, 3:00. >> so that's your problem, and that's why you can't wake up. what's causing you to stay up so late? stress? how was your dad and your mom last night? >> my pops was drunk. like pissy drunk. my parents, they drink a lot, every day. my mom, she has a job. she's a good lady, she is, but she just has a drinking problem. and it's because of my dad. he doesn't work, he drinks, you know, but when he get... when he's not drunk, coolest person in the world, i love him to death. cool, cool. but when he get drunk, he acts like he's six. and you know, i gotta take care of him basically when he drunk. >> so did you have any confrontations? >> a little bit, but... >> did you do what i said? >> mm-hmm. >> what'd you do? >> i just went in my room. >> okay, and what'd you do in your room? >> smoked. >> do your parents know that you're sitting in your room smoking? >> mm-hmm. and they don't care? >> they... i mean, like, yeah. they don't like that i smoke. but it's like... i smoke, i mean, that's just me. i got a lot to deal with, you know. i got personal home problems, but i try not to let that get in the way of my school 'cause i don't like walking around with a mad face, you know, just angry at the world. 'cause my parents making me mad, i can't take it out on everybody else. but i got a lot of stress on me. >> all right, we need to get you to spanish. >> i don't put in the effort. i know that. i have everybody that's just really putting the effort in and helping me and it's my life, and i realize it though, i do. >> you get up there. get to class, all right. >> yes, ma'am. >> all right. >> all right, welcome! everybody should have a warm-up. take a seat, take a seat, take a seat. >> it's been plenty of occasions i wanted to quit school and drop out. but it seems like every time i think that i will drop out, people been telling me not to. "if you drop out, then you're gonna be like everyone else." which i don't want to be like everyone else. i want to be different. >> we got a couple seats left here. >> and my momma wanted me to graduate. i'm going to be her only kid to graduate, so that's my goal right now. she didn't graduate, neither did my two my two older sisters or my two older brothers, and i'm in the middle, so i have to be the positive role model for my two... my younger siblings. so i want to show them, i want to graduate so i get my diploma. >> number one! what is it? >> angry. >> yes. >> i put frustrated. >> i'll take frustrated. mad. >> this is his fifth year in high school, you know, he's 19. he should have graduated last year. but lawerance just... he has major anger issues. he blows up and is disrespectful, and he curses and stuff like that. and that's what's hard for me, because he's so close. and he's a smart kid, he's an articulate kid, so that's my biggest goal, is to get him through the next four months. >> all right, third one across? >> nervous. >> uh, no. >> hopeful. >> i wanna see him succeed, because you feel like if they get to the point where they drop out, then it's just downhill from there. i mean, it's just, what would become of him? >> lawerance, he's a hard one to figure out. he's a personable kid, and when he's okay he as nice as can be. but when he's not okay, something obviously has caused him to be very angry. you can't stay inside with a hat on. >> is the hat on my head right now? >> no, but go ahead. >> mr. g be trippin'. like, he takes the smallest things and try to blow it to the biggest proportions. it seems like every time i come to sharpstown, there's something. i get in trouble for the little pettiest things. sometimes it feel like everybody against me here sometimes. i mean, some days it feels like everybody with me. so them days, i just roll with the punches. i keep going. >> you can't wear a hat in there. >> everybody wearing their hat. what are you talking about? everybody wear their hat in there. >> no, come on in here. it's the whole interaction of doing school that he doesn't get. i mean, you saw it today. it's the hat there. it's the officer that's telling him to stop. but you gotta give up the hat. going to happen!finitely not >> okay, that's your choice, it's a bad one. and the odds are probably that he's not going to make it. but you don't give up on him. >> get in here. where've you been? three days? >> home. >> all right, come on. let's get you a pass to class. >> i have been missing some days. but, like, i know missing days, like, bring me back on my work. but i'm a very intelligent person. i can do it. i believe in myself. >> so you haven't been here for the last three days? why? how you gonna graduate? how you gonna do well? >> sometimes it ain't easy to get up and go to school because you don't want to be around everybody with your problems. it really is. when you ain't got nobody there? i'm doing all this by myself. on my own. >> and you gonna have a good day today? no problems? >> no. >> okay, okay. she doesn't live with anybody, so she's been all over the place. she stays with friends. she called one night at like 10:00 and didn't have anywhere to stay, she was staying on the streets. but she's here, so we'll do the best we can. >> life is life. school is school. school and life are two different things. >> juniors, what year are you graduating from college? >> '17. >> 2017. sophomores? >> '18. >> 2018. >> i love school. i want to go to college and stuff. i want to be something. i want to be a obstetrician. that's what i want to be! (laughing) >> there are so many endearing qualities to sparkle. she doesn't think anything is impossible. on her good days, she's just the sweetest, greatest, smartest kid. why is it helpful to understand the concept of future value? go ahead, sparkle. >> so you can prepare and know what you're getting yourself into, and you will know where to go and how far to take it. >> she has great aspirations. i mean, what she wrote her vision of her life in ten years, not only was she a doctor, but she had lived in europe, spoke many languages and had taken etiquette classes in paris. and all i can think is if you don't at least get out of high school, every one of those dreams is pretty much snatched away from you. as much school as she's missed, i feel like she's guaranteed to have to do summer school unless she feels like repeating tenth grade. she's already a little bit older than she should be to be in the grade she's in. once a kid repeats two grades, they are almost completely on track to drop out. so the next few months are crucial for her. >> it ain't just school. it's my life, too. so it's a lot going on. i don't want to talk about it because i don't want to cry in front of all these people. sometimes i have different moments to where i push... the people that are really here for me, i push them away. why? because in my life, a lot of people have came in and then left out. so i don't let nobody in. i'm gonna leave you where you at, on the outside looking in. >> that's not a friday shirt. i was in north carolina. i was retired from the public school system after 31 years or so. but still working-- i wanted to look at something a little different. we still have too many kids that don't believe they can have a successful future. come here, come here. >> i'm not wrong. >> our kids come from stuff that we don't even want to think about. we can't even begin, i don't think, to grasp and understand. what poverty does is, our kids come and go. they start academically a year or two behind. somewhere along the way, they've gotten lost and they have to catch up. you see the signs. erratic behavior. sometimes it's isolation. sometimes it's just blatant acting out. excessive absences. did you eat this morning? and then you start to have the conversation over breakfast because they haven't eaten, and they say, "i don't have a place to stay." it puts a strain on people. why are you not in class? >> i'm starving. it's because i didn't eat last night because of my job. i got off at 12:00. so i just try to get here. >> well, i'm glad you're here. >> i wasn't able to eat breakfast either, so... >> do you eat bananas? >> yeah. >> do you want that one? for marco, getting a snack out of that cabinet is his touch base and just letting me know, "i'm here." >> thank you. >> it's all good. >> i'll see you later. >>when was the last time you ate? >>yesterday at school, until right now. >>why haven't you eaten? >>i work, and, uh... i wasn't able to eat because i don't have money, and i went home and right away i had to go to work. and that's when everything just went and changed. like, my whole life changed. just seeing my mom cry just made me not want to go to school anymore and just help her pay her bills and help my little sister stay in school. need some help? >> yes, can i get some of the spicy jerk turkey? >> i dropped out for a whole semester. i was 17 at the time, 16, and i was working 40 hours or more a week, which i still do. and i didn't get off until 3:00 in the morning, 2:00 in the morning. got home around 4:00 or 5:00 and then i'd sleep for like three or four hours and then, i don't know, i was never used to that life, so i just had to suck it up. my mother, she care. she used to tell me, "you're going to go back to school one day, right?" and i was like, "yes, mom." i have to graduate from high school no matter what. my brother didn't do it, and i don't want to be cutting grass like him. and i was just like, "i need to come back. like, i have to go back to school." >> when marco came to school, i remember this, he was so happy he goes, "ms. church, ms. church, i came back to school. you know i dropped out, ms. church, but i'm really gonna give it a try, i'm really gonna give it a try!" however, i must be transparent with you, it's a big push for him to graduate on time right now. (on walkie-talkie): dean church. i'm in a conference, i'm going to turn my radio down. thank you. >> marco's no angel. every day is not a wonderful adventure with marco. well, it is an adventure, it's not always wonderful. >> first of all, i wanted to talk about marco's behaviors in class. because, as you know, there was an issue in your classroom the day before yesterday. we're trying to support marco to help push him through this process. he's going through a process right now. >> when marco came into the classroom, i thought he was going to do well. and he started acting out. and i tried to talk with him and i called his parents, and i was unable to get them. >> marco's mother is actually in the process of being deported. that's pretty much the reason why, when you were making those phone calls at home, you could not reach a parent. >> my mom was arrested january 1. i was worried about my mom getting deported. >> to be in this position when your father's already gone and now you're at risk of having your mother be deported, that's a lot. >> that day, i just lost it because of my family problems, you know, what i was going through. i snapped real quick and i couldn't control it. that's something i should learn how to do, control my emotions, my behavior, and just, you know, be the bigger person and just walk away from it. >> and do you know that, with all this going on, marco's here at 7:45 in the morning? with all of this going on. so to me, yes, he's at risk, he's tremendously at risk. but is this student trying? yes. does this student always make the right decisions? no. >> do you think we're going to see him in a cap and gown at the end of the semester? >> we better see him in a cap and gown at the end of the semester! i'm going to say yes. however, if we do not, we're gonna lose him, and i don't want to lose him. >> in a few years, houston is supposed to surpass chicago in terms of size, so we will become the third largest city in the country. we serve about 204,000 students. we have 70,000 children who can't read on grade level. there's no question in my mind when i got here our graduation rate was too low, our dropout rate was too high. >> there's no discussion. we have a motion to second. please vote. >> i got a letter from our commissioner of education, said you have these four high schools we have designated as dropout factories. sharpstown high school was one of those four schools. we used to do focus groups on the kids who dropped out. we'd ask, "why did you drop out?" i was just shocked when i heard more and more about, "school's not interesting, it's not challenging, it's not engaging. they don't care about me there." and that's the part that we can fix. and so we started making a program called apollo 20. >> i want to get started by telling you a little bit about apollo. it is called the apollo 20 because we started off with four high schools and then we had some middle schools and we just included elementary schools last year, which makes 20 schools. we have five tenets. human capital-- that means to have a highly effective teacher and principal in every school. >> we started making some changes and holding people accountable. >> increased time on task. and that is, we have a week that we come in earlier... >> we ended up adding an hour to the school day. we added two weeks to the school year. >> high dosage of tutoring. it's great service to our students. >> we tutored all ninth graders in math for 70 minutes a day. >> a culture of high expectations. and data-driven instruction-- making changes as needed so you address student needs. >> we also went out and raised about $17 million. we got a huge award from jpmorgan chase, and the foundations here in houston really stepped up, and we had individual contributions. and i'll be honest with you, i was a little miffed that we had to go out and raise the money. i quite frankly believe that these are our kids, we ought to be figuring out how to find the money in our budget. but we got a lot of push back from some folks here in houston. it's, "why are you spending that amount of money on those kids?" it's been controversial because we decided we would reconstitute the school and replace the principals, all the assistant principals, all the teachers would have to reapply for their jobs. quite frankly, rob was the first person who came to mind. he is the kind of guy that's gonna do whatever it takes. he cares deeply about all kids. and rob doesn't understand failure. he sees success. >> they called me on a tuesday, i was here on a thursday, and that afternoon, they wanted an answer. that's how our superintendent works. sam, what are you drinking? there's no reason to have a school, even an inner city school, that has kids of poverty. that can't be a good school. whatever it takes, no excuses, and that's how it should be. >> how many days did you get detention for being late? >> brandi was one person that i wanted to have on campus. half mom, half statistician. i keep forgetting her title 'cause i'm not into titles. >> you got here on time, i saw you. >> but brandi is here to help us focus in on the data. i can't figure out all the stuff she does with data. and she likes it! >> so this is our dat