[ticking] >> are you guys happy, glad that you decided to come to seed? >> both: yes. >> do you think you'll stay here till you graduate? >> both: yes. >> you're certain of that? >> both: yes. >> why are you so certain? >> 'cause i know this is where i want to be, and this is where my future is gonna start. [ticking] >> most of the men got here by committing violent crimes: assault, rape, and murder. it's not the type of place you'd expect to walk into and find the inmates studying 18th-century european history. >> if you brought with you-- and i hope you did-- olympe de gouges' declaration of the rights of woman and the female citizen... >> inmates in college programs are easier for the prison system to manage. they tend not to stir up trouble

by fighting and arguing, although when we ran into these inmates in the prison yard, they were arguing... about rousseau and machiavelli. >> how do they reconcile each other, or do they? >> well, actually, they both come up with this ideology of what the natural state of man was really all about. [ticking] >> you want to go to college? >> much as it kills me, yes. >> when ed bradley met richar anozier in 2005, it was for a story about the harlem children's zone, an inner-city education program run by a remarkable man named geoffrey canada... >> good morning, boys and girls. >> and considered one of the most ambitious social experiments to alleviate poverty in our lifetime. >> if you work hard... >> but back then, there was no way to tell if the experiment was working. today the results are in, and they're nothing short of stunning. just ask richar anozier. do you know what college you want to go to? >> stanford. >> what do you want to do after stanford? >> i would like to earn my way to being a ceo. >> welcome to 60 minutes on

cnbc. i'm bob simon. in this edition, we look at three groundbreaking approaches to education. first, we visit the seed public charter school, the nation's first urban public boarding school. later, we meet some unlikely students who are getting a liberal arts college degree behind bars. and finally, we go to the harlem children's zone under the leadership of geoffrey canada. we begin with seed, one of the most successful and innovative charter schools in the country. it was started in 1998 in southeast washington, d.c., where some of the nation's most troubled schools are located and where most students don't finish high school. but as byron pitts first reported in 2010, seed students are different. most graduate and go on to college. admission to seed is by lottery, open to any family in the district willing to take a chance.

>> girl 41. >> yeah! >> this family was one of the few who won the lottery, a $35,000-per-year education paid for by private and government money. >> boy 12. >> yay! >> only 1/3 of the over 200 or so kids who applied heard their number called. with the child's future at stake, emotions ran high. >> 38. >> the grants were another family who won the chance to change their child's life. >> yeah! >> when that number was called, describe that feeling. >> it was just shocking. i didn't think that was gonna happen. listen, when he said "38," i didn't hear anything but joy. >> why does this mean so much to you? >> it's called opportunity. we've never had that before. so why not grab it if you can? here, you know, the sky is the limit. >> and how about you? got a big smile. is this good news? >> yes. >> seed is the brainchild of raj

vinnakota and eric adler, two former businessmen who quit their jobs in 1997 to take an old idea and make it new. >> there's boarding schools for rich kids. why aren't there boarding schools for poor kids? the intense academic environment, the 24-hour aspect, and constant access to role models. why wouldn't all of those things be just as important for poor kids as it would be for rich kids? >> we believe very strongly that there is a group of kids for whom the answer is a 24-hour supportive educational environment. and they're not gonna have a shot if we don't give that to them. >> it all starts here. the seed campus is a four-acre oasis, a safe zone where 340 kids can focus on school free from distractions back at home. >> everyone has their own coordinate grid. >> seed's goal is to prepare these children academically and socially for college and beyond. the students enter in sixth and seventh grade, 90% of them

performing below grade level. charles adams is the head of school. >> we are a public school, and we have a lottery. we get what we get. it could be an honor roll student. it could be a student three, four grade levels behind that's struggling with a number of issues at home. so we get the gamut. >> i was told you have kids who come here in the sixth grade reading at a second-grade level. >> mm-hmm. >> is that child going to college? >> why not? why not? i mean-- >> because they're way behind. because they don't read at a proper reading level. they're behind in math. they're behind in science. >> i'll take all of that. >> they're behind in reading. >> i'll take all of that. and they could be a pain in the neck. that's my starting point. >> and you think it's working? >> i know it's working. >> it's a 24-hour, 5-day-a-week job, which starts on sunday night when the kids check in from their weekends at home. >> hey, miss leach. >> how are you, sweetie? >> they live in single-sex dorms with strict rules: no television and no facebook. the days start early, 6:00 a.m., and classes run from 8:00 to 4:00.

then there's study hall, extracurriculars, and tutoring. the day ends at 10:00. >> anthony, let's go. it's lights out. >> all right. >> this kind of structure and support is new to many of these students. >> okay, so this is the quad. >> what's also new is visiting college as early as middle school. these eighth graders went to see american university in washington, d.c. it's all part of reminding them of their end goal. listen to these juniors. show of hands if you're absolutely confident that you're "a," going to college, and "b," you're gonna graduate college. he's got both arms up, he's so... [laughter] he's so sure. >> seed imbeds college and success and commitment into our minds on a daily basis. it's, like, we build, and we live and we grow into scholars. >> scholars. now, did you have that confidence before you got here or-- >> no. >> no. what gave you that confidence? >> the teachers. >> so on the board, things that impressed you or a question you

have or something. >> teachers put extra emphasis on the basics. unlike most schools, there are two periods of english and two periods of math per day in middle school. upperclassmen are required to read 45 minutes a day in addition to their homework. classes are small with 10 to 15 students. >> clearly, you see that there's a lot of dna inside of these strawberries. >> teachers like jawan harris know every student personally, their strengths and weaknesses. if a child is failing, how do you help him or her? >> we usually host tutorials after school. last week, i sent out an email saying, "5:00 until they get it." >> what time did they finally get it? >> i would say my last student was in here probably until about 10:45. >> 10:45. but what public school teacher in d.c. works till 10:45? >> i have no idea, but i know that when i leave this building, i'm walking past my principal's office, who's in her office talking to another student, and there's another teacher still in their office,

so it happens often. >> that kind of dedication and personalized instruction has paid off. >> i'm awesome. [laughter] >> by 2012, tenth graders at seed were scoring 55% higher in reading and 40% higher in math compared to other minority students in their area. but seed isn't just about academics. there's a life skills curriculum taught in the evenings. >> the core values are respect, responsibility, integrity, self-discipline, and compassion. >> students learn social skills like self-discipline and etiquette. >> can anybody raise their hand and tell me why the skill of public speaking is important? >> it helps your self-confidence. >> definitely helps your self-confidence. good one. [ticking] >> coming up, the measure of success. >> what i think success is: it's kind of what you're like. you're smart, intelligent. you're a nice reporter. you dress nice.

your shoes are pretty. and just that--knowing that you're gonna be something in life. >> you gonna make it? >> yes. >> more on the seed school when 60 minutes on cnbc continues. [ticking] ♪

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[ticking] >> how's class going? >> it's been going great. >> director of outreach lesley poole has been at seed from the start. >> no one has pulled themself up

by their own bootstraps, right? like, everyone has a story about somebody who helped them. >> and you're letting them hold on to your bootstraps, and you're helping to pull them up. >> i'm giving them everything i have. >> you get the sense seed is more of a calling than a job for people like poole. they don't simply have to raise a kid's test scores. they have to change their values. >> i think the average middle school student comes into seed and says, "i have to do two hours of homework? really? i have to tuck my shirt in all the time? really? i have to go to bed at 9:00 at night? i need to get eight hours' sleep? does it really take all of that just to be successful in school?" it takes all that. >> frances blackmon and melvin brown have learned that. >> are you guys happy, glad that you decided to come to seed? >> both: yes. >> do you think you'll stay here till you graduate? >> both: yes. >> you're certain of that? >> both: yes. >> why are you so certain? >> 'cause i know this is where i want to be, and this is where my

future is gonna start. >> a whole new beginning of life. >> that's what seed is for you? >> mm-hmm. >> but you guys have long school days, right? >> yeah, we get out at 4:00. >> do you mind being at school that long? >> both: no. >> 'cause i'm getting more education into my brain. >> more education into your brain. >> when you're in class and you don't understand something, the teachers will take time out after school and during school to help, try to help you, and they, like, they show compassion for you. >> compassion for you. do you guys have any doubt that you're gonna be successful? >> no. >> no. >> and what does success look like? >> you're always supposed to believe in yourself. >> do you believe in yourself? >> yes. >> what i think success is: it's kind of what you're like. you're smart, intelligent. you're a nice reporter. you dress nice. your shoes are pretty. and just that--knowing that you're gonna be something in life. >> you gonna make it? >> yes. >> and then there are students like rojay ball who may not make it.

he came here to escape his old neighborhood, where guns and gang violence are common. in 2009, in one turf battle, rojay was shot in the leg. weeks later, he was shot at again, but at seed, he says he feels safe. >> when i come here, i feel as though i can just be laid back without worrying about nobody having to attack me or say something wrong to me. >> someone could hurt you in that world. >> yeah. >> someone could kill you in that world. >> yeah. >> rojay ball. >> at seed, rojay's an athlete. he's a "b" student. teachers say he's not a troublemaker. yet his loyalty to his old neighborhood, his old friends runs deep. how many close friends do you have back at the neighborhood number-wise? >> around, like, ten. >> how many of those guys are going to college? >> i'd say none. >> a lot of people in your life feel like you're on the fence, that you could go this way and be successful, go to

college, or you could go this way and end up someplace else. do you feel that at all? >> well, i always feel as though, like, i'm gonna graduate from college. when i come to seed, i'm in this world where as though i'm comfortable enough to focus in class, do my homework every day, like, and i'm prepared for college. but i'm just trying to escape that world, like, my outside world. but it's something that's right there that's just, like, holding me up, holding me back. >> can't let it go? >> i just can't. >> like a magnet, it pulls you back. >> mm-hmm, just like a magnet. >> you think rojay will graduate from here? >> oh, i do. oh, come on. i do. >> and he will go to college? >> i do. >> what makes you think rojay can be successful? i mean, this is a kid who's been shot, shot at. >> i don't think it's in me to not think they can be successful. he has some capacity building in front of him. but rojay still has hope, and he still has potential, and so i'd

just as soon not give up on him until, you know, until he makes it and he can believe for himself. >> that's part of the success formula here: getting these kids to believe in themselves as much as you believe in them. >> we set high expectations. i think we push our students until they can own that, and they begin to set expectations for themselves. >> but some don't. seed loses 12% of their students every year. the reality is, you can't save everybody. >> the reality is that we're gonna work our darnedest to save everybody. >> we're not gonna give up on any child. we are gonna work to create an environment where every single child can succeed. in the end, have there been and will there be some children for whom the clock just runs out on us? sure, it happens. we'll never accept it. we will always work to make that not happen. >> seed's commitment to its students has brought them attention. president obama, who is looking for ways to improve inner-city

schools, visited in 2009. >> this school is a true success story, a place where, for four of the last five years, every graduate from the seed school was admitted to college, every graduate. >> the class of 2009 was on track to do the same. with success like that, vinnakota and adler believe there should be a seed school in every major urban area. they opened a second boarding school in baltimore two years ago, and they're planning to open a third in cincinnati. the funding comes from a mixture of private donors who pay for start-up costs, including building the schools, and then government money pays for most of the operating costs. at every school, the goal is the same: a day like this one. >> i'm going to kent state university. >> connecticut college. >> winston-salem state university. >> kent state university. >> raise your hand if you're the first member of your family to go to college.

>> in a single generation, families can not only produce a high school graduate but a college graduate, and that changes a family forever. and that's why we do what we do. >> many of seed's alumni now have degrees from colleges and universities all over the country, and the graduating class of 2012 is its biggest yet. most have been accepted into college. in 2011, ohio and florida passed legislation that will allow for public boarding schools in each state. seed hopes to open a school in cincinnati in 2013 and then in miami. and as for rojay ball, he left seed in 2011 and enrolled in another school in washington. [ticking] coming up, teaching 18th-century european history behind bars. did you have to make the course easier for the prisoners than you did for the students at

bard? >> once i was there three weeks, i just made it harder. >> harder. >> yes. >> maximum security education when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] i love having a free checked bag. with my united mileageplus explorer card. i have saved $75 in checked bag fees. priority boarding is really important to us. you can just get on the plane and relax. i love to travel, no foreign transaction fees means real savings. we can go to any country and spend money the way we would in the us. when i spend money on this card

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[ticking] >> it's been well-documented that one of the best ways to rehabilitate criminals is to educate them while they're in prison. but who wants to pay for prisoners to go to college when most people have trouble paying for their own kids' tuition? well, we found one college that does: bard, where a prestigious private college is offering liberal arts degrees to some inmates in new york state, and it doesn't cost taxpayers a cent. as we reported in 2007, it's not what you think goes on in a maximum security prison. [orchestral music]] [applause] it looks and sounds like an ordinary college graduation ceremony:

the caps and gowns, the handing out of diplomas. [applause] but these men receiving their degrees from bard college will not be leaving to go out and make their mark on the world. >> this is an upside-down cake. we go, and you remain here. >> "here" is the eastern correctional facility, a maximum security prison in new york state. most of the men got here by committing violent crimes: assault, rape, and murder with sentences ranging from seven years to life. it's not the type of place you'd expect to walk into and find the inmates studying 18th-century european history. >> if you brought with you-- and i hope you did-- olympe de gouges' declaration of the rights of woman and the female citizen... >> the bard college program, which is privately funded, has been in this prison since 2001. the academics are tough. how much studying do you guys do? [laughter] >> maybe five or six hours a day outside of class.

>> the classes they take change each semester. >> the fate of most dictators is that nobody wants to give them asylum. >> but what they have in common is that they're not practical courses. they're true liberal arts courses, like english, sociology, philosophy, and german. >> okay, sehr gut. >> that's right, german. >> berlin. >> [together] berlin. >> berlin. >> salih israel pushed for a german course because, he says, he wanted to be able to read german philosophers in their original language. >> i mean, you have hegel. you have marx. you have kant. a lot of those prevailing ideas, they're in german. >> you want to read hegel and kant in german? >> yes. >> es gibt ein millionen. >> salih israel, by the way, is serving 20 to 40 years for shooting a woman in the course of a robbery. >> it may be that the difference between a marshland and a wetland and a swamp is actually physical. >> what do you say to somebody who says you should be learning a trade, some vocational training, instead of all this philosophy? >> a vocational program might

give you skills to have a job, but it's not gonna give you skills to have a life. >> joe bergamini is in prison because he took a life, his own mother's. >> "that thomas jefferson..." >> reshawn hughes shot and killed a man. he was far from being college material. how much education had you had before you were incarcerated? >> actually, i'd never read a book until i came to prison. >> you'd never read a book. >> never read a book. >> now he says he hopes to continue his education until he gets his phd. >> "to educate citizens about liberty." >> by 2007, wes caines had already served 17 years for taking part in a shoot-out in which one man was killed and another was seriously injured. he knows how lucky he is to be getting an elite education from bard. >> they made an investment in people that society had written off and people who even today feel that we shouldn't have this opportunity. >> not every prisoner gets the

opportunity. only about 10% of the inmates who apply to the college program are accepted. prison life can be so routine and depressing, it's no wonder that these men jump at the chance to escape with their minds if not with their bodies. >> ahh! >> travis darshan dropped out of school when he was 14. when he was 17, he was arrested with two friends for robbing and killing a taxi driver. travis darshan never dreamed he'd get a college education. >> how did you feel when you got in? >> oh, i was elated. i was elated. it was--it was almost like they told me i was going home. >> wow. >> i really was. i felt like it was just a new chapter in my life, that it gave me a chance to start over. >> for these people locked up, this is just a psychological lifesaver, a string of hope, even if their release is 10, 5, 15, 20 years out. >> leon botstein is the president of bard college, a liberal arts college located about an hour from the prison but, in every other sense,

worlds away. the majority of the students here are white and privileged, like max kenner, who came up with the idea of the bard prison program when he was a student here in the 1990s. he had been volunteering in prisons and knew the inmates were hungry for an education, but few opportunities were available to them. >> i visited 30 or 40 prisons. i did not encounter one single superintendent who wasn't enthusiastic about the possibility of starting a college within that prison. >> it is hard to get professors to teach in the program? >> no one has once taught for us and not wanted to do it again. >> i'm gonna put up some possibilities on the board, because this is intense. >> professor tabetha ewing teaches european history here at bard college. >> okay, how many people for absolute monarchy? >> last fall... >> the monarch... >> she also started teaching the same european history course to the prisoners. >> how many of you would choose absolute monarchy? >> how did she feel when you found herself in a room with

prisoners and no guard? >> as soon as we shut the door and we began working, it was the most amazing experience. >> how? >> we had an immediate rapport. they took themselves and the work so seriously that i didn't have a moment to really consider the absence of a guard. >> i'ma start throwing chalk at him any a minute now. >> did you have to make the course easier for the prisoners than you did for the students at bard? >> once i was there three weeks, i just made it harder. >> harder. >> yes. >> she had to make the course harder, she told us, because the inmates studied harder. the student inmates have a room where they can study if they have free time during the day. these computers, by the way, do not have internet access, but much of their studying is done at night in their cells surrounded by a constant din. it may be hard to feel sympathy for criminals. it's also hard to get studying done here. this isn't exactly an ideal

study situation, is it? >> no, absolutely not. >> how do you manage? i mean, it's really noisy here. >> you just try to block out the noise. and when i begin to read, i try to focus in on my studies. you know, you enter the atmosphere of the book instead of the atmosphere of your cell. [buzzer buzzes] and there you go. you know, instead of hearing that noise, you just block it out. the distractions aren't available when your mind is centered on what you're reading. [ticking] >> coming up, a prisoner's education inspires his family. >> my daughter just recently got accepted to the university of pennsylvania, and that was-- i've got to tell you, that was the best feeling in the world. >> that's next when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] ♪searching with devotion ♪for a snack that isn't lame

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newlywed discount. new college graduate and retiree discounts. you could even get a discount when you add a car. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. [ticking] >> in 2001, bard college launched an initiative offering a liberal arts degree to inmates at a maximum security prison in new york state. the program started with 15 students and by 2012 had increased to nearly 300 at 5 different prisons across the state. we spoke to bard's president, leon botstein, in 2007. how have the prisoners struck you or surprised you? >> well, the most amazing thing, i have to say, the most shocking

and most absolutely unbelievable thing is that it takes radical incarceration, the loss of all hope, to engender a genuine love of learning. >> higher education in penitentiaries used to be common, but then in 1994, congress eliminated federal funding for prisoners to go to college, and many programs folded. the issue was, why give free college education to convicts when so many students who haven't committed crimes can't afford it? >> it's a fair argument, but we treat inmates for medical reasons. we treat inmates for drug addiction. why aren't we treating inmates for educational needs? >> commissioner brian fisher, the head of corrections for new york state, says every study he's read shows that inmates given a college education are less likely to commit crimes once they are released. >> education changes people. and i think that's what prisons should do: change somebody from one way of thinking to a different way of thinking. >> it's a very liberal view of

incarceration. >> i don't think so. i think it's the logical view of incarceration. going to prison is the punishment. once in prison, it's our obligation to make them better than they were. >> and he told us inmates in college programs are easier for the prison system to manage. >> they tend not to stir up trouble by fighting and arguing, although when we ran into these inmates in the prison yard, they were arguing... about rousseau and machiavelli. >> how do they reconcile each other, or do they? >> well, actually, they both come up with this ideology of what the natural state of man was really all about. so now we have all these theories about what the natural man was only to justify what we do now that we're not longer natural. >> listening to them talk, i could easily have been in a college quad rather than a prison yard. >> he lived in a tumultuous time, so his philosophy was geared around what he knew, what he saw. >> wes caines, like most of these men, has children. he says his daughters were his inspiration to go to college. >> i really wanted them to have a father figure who, when they

look at their father, he's more than prison. he's more than a prisoner. so everything i've done has been in an effort to be someone that they can be proud of. >> and he wanted to show them that if he could study hard, they could too. >> they're pursuing their education. >> absolutely. my daughter just recently got accepted to the university of pennsylvania, and that was--i've got to tell you, that was the best feeling in the world. >> "article one proclaims..." >> remember reshawn hughes, who had never read a book before being incarcerated? he's not at eastern, the maximum security prison, anymore. he was transferred to this medium security penitentiary, where he has a lot more freedom to roam around. there are no cells here. the men live in dormitories. there are also no college programs at all. i'm sure 99 out of 100 prisoners would rather be here than at eastern, huh? this is a much easier, freer atmosphere. >> it depends on how you determine--define freedom.

while at bard, i learned that freedom was something much different than just a physicality, a space of physical existence. freedom had a lot do with your ability to think. freedom had a lot to do with your ability to communicate with others, to see the world in a different view. >> if you had a choice, would you go back to that maximum security prison at eastern tomorrow if you could? >> i would go right after this interview. if they packed me up and tell me, "let's go," i would go just to continue my education. i miss the bard program tremendously. >> he also missed seeing some of his fellow student inmates graduate. most of them hope to continue their studies in prison towards more advanced degrees. there's no longer a lot of public opposition to college prison programs, but there's little government funding either, and private programs like bard's are few and far between. >> today we stand before you strong with hope, we stand before you strong with education, and we stand before you strong with a new sense of life, liberty, and happiness

that has transformed us from inmates of a prison to students of the world. >> a world, which because of their crimes, they won't be seeing for many years. by june of 2012, nearly 125 students of bard's program had been released from prison. according to max kenner, many of them have leadership positions in businesses and nonprofits, while others are doing well in academia and the arts. since 2009, bard has been supporting similar programs in other colleges and universities and hopes to be active in ten states over the next few years. [ticking] coming up, geoffrey canada on the kids in the harlem children's zone. >> they come from broken homes? yes. is there poverty and drugs and crime? yes, it's all those things. those kids are still going to college. >> the zone, when 60 minutes on cnbc

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build bridges that fix themselves. get more clean water to everyone. who's going to take the leap? who's going to write the code? who's going to do it? engineers. that's who. that's what i want to do. be an engineer. join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring america's future engineers. energy lives here. [ticking] >> in the world of education, geoffrey canada is considered a rock star. with his project, the harlem children's zone, canada has flooded 97 square blocks of manhattan with a wide variety of free social, medical, and educational services for over

11,000 children, including some living outside the zone. in 2012, he'll spend $95 million, 2/3 of which will come from the private sector. ed bradley first met geoffrey canada in 2005, but back then, there was no way to tell if the zone was working. now the results are in, and as anderson cooper reported in 2009, they are very impressive. for geoffrey canada, however, it's only just the beginning. >> you grow up in america, and you're told from day one this is the land of opportunity, that everybody has an equal chance to make it in this country, and then you look at places like harlem, and you say, "that is absolutely a lie." >> so you're trying to level the playing field between kids here in harlem and, what, middle-class kids in a suburb? >> that's exactly what we think we have to do. you know, if you grow up in a community where your schools are inferior, where the sounds of

gunshots are a common thing, where you spend your time and energy not thinking about algebra or geometry but about how not to get beat up or not to get shot or not to get raped, when you grow up like that, you don't have the same opportunity as other children growing up. and we're trying to change those odds. >> he's trying to change those odds on a scale never before attempted. his goal: to break the cycle of poverty in an entire neighborhood by making sure all the kids who live there go to college. you really believe that's possible, to break that cycle? >> i absolutely know we're gonna do it. >> canada remembers well what it was like to be a kid in the inner city. >> we couldn't afford... >> he grew up not far from harlem in another tough new york neighborhood, the south bronx. abandoned by his father, he and his three brothers were raised by their mother, who was barely able to get by. >> when i first found out that superman wasn't real, i was about maybe eight. and i was talking to my mother about it. and she was like, "no, no, no. there's no superman." and i started crying.

the chaos, the violence, the danger. no hero was coming. >> canada got lucky, however. as a teenager, his grandparents moved to the suburbs, and he went with them. he got into bowdoin college and then the harvard school of education. >> good morning, boys and girls. >> he's been working with kids in harlem virtually ever since. >> you know, one of the first things kids ask me when they really get to know me, they say, "mr. canada..." i say, "yes." "are you rich?" and i say, "yeah, i am." and they're so excited because they think, "i finally know somebody who has power." what they really want to ask is, "is there any way that you can help me figure out how to get a nice car and maybe get a house?" and i think they want someone to say, "yes, you can." i got out. you can get out. there's a way. and i'm gonna help you do that. >> all: ♪ i can do this ♪ i can do it >> to do it, geoffrey canada decided to build his own school in the harlem children's zone. >> we've created a school to help you all become

the smartest boys and girls in the country. >> it's a charter school, so canada is able to run it his way free from the bureaucracy and restrictions in the public school system. classes are smaller and school days longer. kids come in on saturdays, and summer vacation, that only lasts three weeks. >> we will always ask permission before leaving the group? >> yes. >> discipline is strict, and so is the dress code. to teach kids healthy eating habits, there are cooking classes using ingredients from the school's own organic garden. and if any of the kids get sick, this on-site clinic provides free medical, mental health, and even dental care. >> good afternoon. >> canada calls his school the promise academy, and this is what he tells parents at the start of each year. >> we promise our families if your children are with us, we guarantee they're going to get into college, and we're going to stick with them through college, right? so that's--that's the promise. >> how can you, though, actually promise that they will go to college?

>> if my kids don't go to college, people who work for me are losing their jobs. and there's just no way around that. >> you'll fire the teachers. >> i will fire the teachers. i'll fire the after-school workers. i'll fire the directors. everybody understands that this thing is our job as the adults. and we're not gonna hold the kids responsible, right? and are some of my kids belligerent? yes. do some of them come in and don't try hard? yes, they do. do they come from broken homes? yes. is there poverty and drugs and crime? yes, it's all those things. those kids are still going to college. >> my name is richar anozier. >> richar anozier wasn't too sure about college when ed bradley first met him back in 2005. he was just in kindergarten. >> you want to go to college? >> much as it kills me, yes. >> much as it kills you. why would it kill you going to college? >> because they got people-- words that i don't know. >> but you'll learn new words every year.

trust me. you'll be okay. >> okay. >> today richar seems a lot more confident about college. do you know what college you want to go to? >> stanford. >> what do you want to do after stanford? >> i would like to earn my way to being a ceo. >> why do you want to be the ceo? >> to tell you the truth, i think you get paid better when you're a ceo. >> i think you're right. [ticking] >> coming up... >> i love to bribe kids. >> you love to bribe kids? >> i'd love them to do it for the intrinsic value. and until then, i would love them to do it for money. i don't care. i just want them to do it. >> geoffrey canada's not-so-secret weapon when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] "hello. you can go ahead and put your bag right here."

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[ticking] >> if you work hard... >> to make sure his kids succeed, geoffrey canada will do just about anything. >> who in this group went to disney world this summer? >> for younger students who ace their statewide tests, there are free trips, and he pays high schoolers if they get near-perfect attendance and grades. >> aren't you kind of, basically, bribing them? >> i love to bribe kids. >> you love to bribe kids? >> i love to bribe, 'cause this is--look, people say, "well, geoff, don't you want kids to do it for the intrinsic value of"-- sure, i'd love them to do it for the intrinsic value. and until then, i would love them to do it for money. i don't care. i just want them to do it. >> all: there are no excuses. >> tuition at the promise academy is free, but there's not enough room for all the kids who live in the zone, so admission is by lottery. >> let me tell you how this lottery is gonna go. >> tyler phipps, phillip kante iv. >> whoo! >> as the slots filled up, some parents left waiting

began to realize their child's chances of success in life had just been reduced. >> i was sitting here... >> yes. >> for nothing. >> you look into those mothers' eyes and those fathers' eyes, and you see the fear and the terror and the clear understanding that the system is designed so that their kids are probably not going to make it if they don't get in. who else? >> to help ensure that the kids who don't get in still make it to college, canada has created a pipeline of free programs targeting all 10,000 children in the zone. he sends recruiters out door-to-door trying to sell sometimes suspicious families on what services he's offering. >> do you have a moment? >> no. >> canada's pipeline begins at birth at the baby college, a nine-week workshop that teaches new mothers and fathers how to parent. >> you know, you're hitting, and then, you know, after that, you come and hug the child. it's sending mixed messages. >> it also teaches them how to prepare their kids for elementary school. >> so you have the routine of reading books.

>> for toddlers, there are free pre-kindergarten classes that focus on developing language skills, even in french and spanish. canada has also put reading labs in public elementary schools in the zone and created an s.a.t. tutoring center for teens. >> you have to round it up to this one. >> we get them in the pipeline. we seal it. once they get in, we don't let you out. you get out with a college degree. that's the point. >> canada has long argued that investing in the harlem children's zone would show a return, and now, for the first time, there's scientific data to prove it. >> he has done a remarkable job. >> dr. roland fryer is a professor in the economics department at harvard. he has conducted the first independent statistical study of geoffrey canada's efforts to close the racial achievement gap in his school. what is the racial achievement gap? >> black children in our schools are not performing at even close the rate as white children in our schools. the average black 17-year-old reads at the proficiency level of the average white 13-year-old, 4-year difference

in effective reading skills. that's huge. >> but when dr. fryer analyzed four years' worth of promise academy test scores, he discovered something remarkable. >> at the elementary school level, he closed the achievement gap in both subjects, math and reading. >> actually eliminating the gap in elementary school? >> absolutely. we've never seen anything like that. absolutely eliminating the gap. the gap is gone, and that is absolutely incredible. >> in 2008, according to new york state data, 100% of canada's third graders scored at or above grade level in math... >> good job. >> narrowly outperforming their white peers in the city's public schools. >> 96. is that the answer? >> [together] yes. >> even more impressive, canada's impact on middle schoolers, kids who enrolled in the promise academy in the sixth grade. they started out far behind grade level, but dr. fryer found that within three years, they had virtually eliminated the achievement gap in math and reduced it by nearly half in reading. >> these are kids that a lot of people had given up on. and he showed that it's never too late. >> does it change the way you look at the problem?

>> it does, because here's an analogy. we're ten touchdowns down in the fourth quarter. we kick a field goal, and everyone celebrates, right? that's kind of useless. we're still 67 points down. >> you're still losing. >> we're not just losing. we're getting crushed. all right? what geoff canada has shown is that we can actually win the game. >> geoffrey canada may be winning, but he is nowhere near declaring victory. >> reversing the black-white achievement gap and then closing it in elementary school, that's huge. >> it's about an hour's worth of celebration huge. you know, i've got kids who might be shot tomorrow. we've still got a lot of work to do before i can feel comfortable that they're all gonna be okay. >> and the economic crisis has hit canada hard as well. donations are down, and he's laid off staff. his endowment also lost $4 million to bernie madoff. and that money is just gone. >> we basically have written that money off. it's basically gone. >> but canada's experiment did

receive a boost when president obama announced plans to create promise neighborhoods across the country modeled after the harlem children's zone. >> if the harlem's children's zone can turn around neighborhoods in new york, then why not detroit or san antonio or los angeles? >> and a lot of students came to school on saturday... >> there are other charter schools getting similar positive results, but replicating the harlem children's zone in its entirety may be difficult, in part because it's hard to determine exactly which ingredient is the key to geoffrey canada's success. >> i feel like i've gone to a phenomenal french restaurant. the dish tastes good, but i'm not sure exactly what they did to do it. >> he's doing so many different things. he's got this all-hands-on-deck approach. >> he does. he does. he does. and i think the key step forward from here is that we need to kind of demystify the success. i want to boil him down to pill form so i can transport him to other places. because if folks think, "well, this is just geoff canada," or "this is just harlem, and this is just a special deal," they're less likely to

adopt it in omaha and places like minnesota." >> and we're gonna stick with them through college, right? >> so how will you measure success? how will you know when the children's zone has worked? >> when i see my kids by the thousands with degrees, i will say, "this is what we set out to do, and we've done it. we've got our kids in the best schools in america. they're gonna be successful. they'll be competing with everybody else all over the country." people will be looking for kids from harlem, saying, "oh, those kids are so great from harlem. we need more kids from harlem to come in." then we'll be successful. >> since we first reported this story, the harlem children's zone has reached a milestone. the promise academy added a 12th grade, and his first graduates, the class of 2012, were all accepted into college. the zone is also using a nearby armory and turned it into a sports and fitness center, where 1,000 children a week

now exercise. that's our edition of 60 minutes on cnbc. i'm bob simon. thanks for joining us. [ticking] [ticking] >> warren buffett, america's second-richest man, is a household name, his son howard not so much. and yet he's the person warren buffett wants to succeed him as chairman of berkshire hathaway, the mega holding company that buffett built. like his father, howard does not live the high life. in fact, he's a farmer who would rather dig up the ground than sit in a boardroom. are you sure he's your son? >> well, i think that's worth checking out. you'll have a big exclusive. [ticking] [bell ringing] >> for 150 years, the floor of the new york stock exchange was