>> narrator: tonight on frontline, two stirring reports about education across america. first, in louisiana, some parents want to break away from the baton rouge school district and start their own. >> these are some of the worst schools in the country. nobody's getting educated in these schools. >> it will be segregated along race lines and class lines. >> narrator: the fight over education and desegregation. >> the justice department achieved their goal. who can say we're not desegregated? we have an african-american president. we've been through all that. we need to let us go back and rebuild our schools now. >> narrator: and later tonight, frontline checks back in with

a teenager who made the most of her "middle school moment." >> i am incredibly proud of your accomplishments. >> oh, miss miller! you're gonna make me cry! >> narrator: two powerful stories. one exclusive hour of frontline. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the ford foundation, working

with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. the wyncote foundation. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from susan hunter and douglas watson and the orfalea foundation.

>> caleb. caleb. come on, get up. >> narrator: nikki dangerfield is a single mother with four children. she works long hours as a fedex manager. >> i get up at the crack of dawn and sometimes i don't get home from work until 6:00, 7:00, maybe 8:00. and then cook dinner, talk to the kids, and then sometimes i'm talking to them but halfway sleeping. it's like, "okay, mama, go to bed." so yes, i'm very busy, but i'm only busy for them. you got your workbook? >> i cannot pay for an education, but i would like for them to get the best public education that they could. >> narrator: half a century ago, her children's educational options would have been limited

by their skin color. baton rouge, like most of the south, had a segregated school system. but after a hard-fought civil rights battle, her children now have alternatives to the struggling schools in their own neighborhood. >> as a whole, i feel that the public school system has done right by my family. >> bye, mom, love you. >> i love you, too. have a good day. >> you, too. >> narrator: every morning before dawn, the dangerfield kids wait for buses that will carry them to integrated schools throughout baton rouge. >> i think the benefit of the kids going to schools with different cultures, with children that have different economic backgrounds, they see a better life and they can say, "okay, what can i do to have a better life?" they can dream bigger.

>> these schools are some of the worst schools in the country. they're some of the most violent schools in the country. nobody is getting educated in these schools. >> narrator: but not everyone is happy with how busing has changed the schools here. >> what have they done? where is their plan to better the schools? >> narrator: fed up with what they say are dangerous, failing and mismanaged schools, a group of residents has come up with a radical plan. >> the line actually comes down here... >> narrator: they've begun a movement to form an entirely new city out of a large area of suburban neighborhoods, taking part of the east baton rouge parish school system with them. >> you know, thank you for coming out tonight. (voice breaking): i see these children here. that's why we're here. these children right here are why we're here. ebr's failed our children for 30-plus years.

>> narrator: the new city would be called st. george and would be whiter and more affluent than baton rouge. >> and starting right here, with this petition right here, we have the opportunity to make a difference. we can do it. so come on up and sign the petition. thank you. (applause) >> we've had enough of failing our children. we're not going to do it anymore, and we'll go to the length of creating our own city, to create our own education system, to take control back from the status quo. >> hey, over here, look! >> the fight hasn't even started yet. the powers that be will do everything that they can do to make this not happen. >> narrator: it will take roughly 18,000 signatures to get

the idea on a ballot, and the group hopes to achieve that by the end of 2014. >> the idea of breaking away and forming a new school district... >> narrator: around the country, movements like the one in baton rouge have been spreading over the past several years. >> there is talk of secession in east dallas... >> and the city of pelham is thinking about declaring its independence from the shelby county school system... >> they say their city should have control over their own schools... >> narrator: in city after city, parents dissatisfied with their public school districts are trying to break away. >> i think it would help out a lot if we, you know, broke off and became our own district. >> narrator: the goal is to create smaller, community- oriented school systems. >> the city of brookhaven is acting in their own best interest. >> narrator: but the result is often school districts that are less racially and economically diverse. >> they are carving out a section of town that is wealthier and whiter than what they are leaving behind. >> narrator: critics are concerned that decades after the

civil rights victories of the 1960s, the era of school integration may be coming to an end. >> if martin luther king were to come back and see where we are now, i think he would be shocked to see that the schools are actually more segregated than they were when he died. >> narrator: professor orfield says that a series of supreme court rulings have eroded much of the progress made since the landmark brown v. board of education decision 60 years ago. >> the supreme court really began to turn backwards decisively on desegregation in 1991. so basically, that began the dismantling of desegregation plans across the country. and almost all of the larger ones have now been dismantled in our big cities. >> narrator: in baton rouge, the desegregation order was lifted in 2003. the student population is now 11% white, and many in the school district are concerned that number will drop even lower if the st. george proposal

succeeds. >> and that is not fair to the children who remain behind... >> narrator: belinda davis, a local activist with three children in the baton rouge schools, is vowing to prevent the creation of the new city of st. george. >> you are automatically going to be creating a city that is less diverse than the one you are leaving, and we have all kinds of specialized services in schools that we are able to provide because of the size of our school district. all of that is in jeopardy if this new school system is created. >> there are about 6,696 students that will be displaced if the new city school district is created. >> i mean, this is about lives. this is about potential that we are squashing by continuing to carve up our school district. that we could do wonderful things together. we're stronger as one than we are broken up into pieces. >> narrator: among those fighting to keep the school district intact is baton rouge

mayor kip holden. >> we do not allow a small group of people to divide us, weaken our capital city, bankrupt our future. >> narrator: but he faces stiff opposition from some of his constituents. >> thank you all for the opportunity to address you, and i'm free to answer any questions that you have. yes, sir. >> i was watching the news one night and they had you on tv that you are opposed to this area becoming a st. george city. >> yes, sir. >> and the question is, why would you want to oppose letting the people of this area vote on that issue? >> well, because first of all, baton rouge has come too far as a united city. i'm against division when it's not needed. >> the city of st. george will still be in the parish of east baton rouge parish. it will not be separating. >> well, it will separate in this sense. the plan that's out there will be trying to take money

allocated for the whole parish and operate their city. >> narrator: holden says that the school district relies on the taxes paid by the more affluent neighborhoods now trying to break away, and that without that money, the schools will suffer. >> what will happen is that the city of baton rouge would have to stand alone. they would not be able to siphon money from the other cities outside of baton rouge that's being paid into the parish. >> it will be segregated along race lines and class lines. it is going to be devastating to the school system as a whole. a lot of the poor areas will not be receiving the same quality education. >> are you saying we're supplementing these people right now? >> yes. >> we're supplementing them that be in trouble? >> we're supplementing each other. i came from a poor background, but yet it was the fact that i was introduced to a broader range of people and things that allowed me to get out of those poor circumstances up to where i am now.

>> i think the frustration lies in the fact that people are fed up with this money that i'm talking about getting put into the city revenue stream, and we're not getting the return on it. >> we're trying to tell people, you know, "it's time for us to stick together. we've come too far. too much progress has been made to turn that clock back." >> narrator: to understand what the two sides are fighting over, it helps to look at woodlawn high. its story is the same as thousands of others. when it was founded in 1949, most of its 286 students lived nearby, and they were all white. >> how has woodlawn changed over the years? i think all you need to do is go down the hallway by the gym and see the different senior class pictures, and you're going to see the increase in diversity. that's the main difference that i see, is just greater representation of all peoples

in society here. >> narrator: today, woodlawn has over 1,200 students, and its population is around 60% african american. the school has special programs for gifted and talented students. >> these are non-diluted acids. >> narrator: there's an orchestra and marching band. (band playing) advanced placement classes. and a popular football team. but schools in the district have also been struggling. around 40% of them are rated "d" or "f," and the state has taken over part of the school system. woodlawn also has its share of problems. >> we're a c-rated school. we made some gains last year. we're excited that we're going to probably make some gains this year. obviously we want to be a "b" and we want to ultimately be an "a." i'm proud of what we're doing here.

let's go, clear the halls! >> narrator: that progress isn't enough for norman browning, the leader of the st. george campaign. >> our children aren't getting an education. they're failing our children because our children are not getting the education they deserve. >> narrator: browning says that years of busing stemming from the civil rights era have destroyed the sense of community for a lot of baton rouge schools. >> parents want schools that their children can go to in their neighborhood. i'm against transporting children out of the neighborhoods to go clear across town to go to school. i can look back to my school years, the neighborhood schools, and being sent to the principal's office, and the principal saying, "boy, you want me to call your daddy?" you know, because you know what? i knew he knew my father. it's about bringing community back.

it's about bringing schools back to our community. >> narrator: he is no stranger to woodlawn high. >> close to 15 years, i've volunteer coached at woodlawn high school. so my involvement with this campaign really stems from what i saw from the inside: the lack of control in the classrooms, the lack of control in the halls. >> narrator: the school has been plagued with discipline issues: 61 arrests in 2013. >> these are the things that just totally disrupt other students who are there to get an education. >> narrator: students have even posted videos of fights on youtube. (kids shouting) browning's group seized on them in a scathing ad. >> the principal doesn't have the proper people in there to control the students. they're babysitting them. they're not educating them. they're babysitting them. >> we've been described as a zoo, even.

when you put 1,200 kids in a building with over 90 faculty members, you're going to have conflict. that's part of... that's the nature of it. so i take offense to people who say this is a dangerous school, and i really get a little upset when individuals from outside our school characterize us that way and they've never stepped foot in our school. >> well, i'm a parent of two kids in public schools. i'm concerned about discipline also. that doesn't mean i want to essentially secede from the union. i want to, you know, work with the principal, work with the parents, and let's see what the problems are. >> narrator: domoine rutledge is the school district's attorney and was involved in baton rouge's desegregation efforts. he says the schools overall have been improving, and it's not busing that's been a problem; it's that white families have been leaving. >> you know, it's a question of almost which came first, the chicken or the egg. because without the forced busing, you probably would not

have had the white flight. however, you probably would have still had, for too long a period of time, a system that was not desegregated, which was the mandate. we've got to desegregate these schools, and we've got to have everybody embrace the concept that regardless of color, we can go to school together and get along and get educated. >> narrator: that's exactly the opportunity nikki dangerfield's kids are taking advantage of. she says the east baton rouge parish school system may not be perfect, but it gives them options. >> my three boys go to three different middle schools, the reason being each school caters to them. aaron is in the gifted program. middles to one of th schools. they have the best gifted program in baton rouge. zephaniah goes to a school that has smaller classroom settings because that's what he needs. caleb is in performing arts, so he goes to mckinley middle.

that is a performing arts school. >> narrator: but if the new city of st. george happens, many of the district's schools would become part of it, including woodlawn high, which is where aaron would like to go because despite its problems, it's rated better than the high school in his neighborhood. >> i'd like to go to woodlawn high because it has a gifted program and a football team, so i can be able to play high school football at the same time as i focus on my work in school. i want a high school that has sports programs and has, like, science programs and technology programs. >> narrator: dangerfield's oldest daughter, joy, was her high school valedictorian. today, she's a student at lsu. >> my mom was talking to me about the school choices for my little brother aaron, and, you know, she was telling me how much he wanted to attend woodlawn high. >> you can't master the game

unless you put it on all-madden. >> my mom talked to the secretary, and she explained to her that, you know, he couldn't attend that school because he doesn't live in that area and then that they were pulling away. and so she told my little brother aaron and he was really upset because he was, like, "well, mom, that's the only school i want to go to." >> if st. george happened, they're going to take the better schools with them. you're no longer giving other kids a choice. >> narrator: it's not just that kids like aaron wouldn't be able to enroll at woodlawn; there's fear that some students already enrolled there, many of them poor and minorities, could be asked to leave. >> i would assume that if boundaries change, there may be some students who would no longer attend this school. certainly as principal of woodlawn high school, i want to attract students to our school as opposed to losing any students.

so it would be... it would be sad. i'm sorry. because as principal, you grow attached to every student you have, and i would hate to see anyone leave. so the saddest thing to me would be for kids to not have the opportunity to express their own opinions about where they want to go to school. >> east baton rouge parish was probably the best public school system in the '60s and early '70s. >> narrator: state senator bodi white has already helped another neighborhood split off and form its own school system. he's a long-time opponent

of federally mandated busing. >> the federal government, through their actions, i think the forced busing, it just destroyed the school system. >> narrator: the fight to desegregate the baton rouge schools was one of the longest in the nation. for 15 years, beginning in 1981, the school district was forced to bus its children to achieve integration. >> and i'll use me as an example. i had a choice to put my five-year-old daughter on a school bus and give her an hour bus ride to a school that was two to three years behind the national average in testing. busing children forced the middle class and upper middle class families to drop out of public education. >> you saw a mass exodus of white families from the school system. unfortunately, too many of them decided, "we fear the unknown and we're not going to do it."

>> narrator: today, while there is no federally forced busing, parents can still have their children bused to better schools around baton rouge. with the st. george proposal, rutledge is worried baton rouge is taking a step backwards. >> the end result of that is it excludes children, and those children are minority children. those children are black children. we have done a full throttle reversal in this community, and we are resegregating our school system. >> narrator: the issue has become deeply divisive. >> when i read headlines such as the fact that this is nothing but a secession to get away from the low-income citizens as well as making it a race issue, it's extremely disturbing to me. this is nothing more than a middle-class community incorporating a city. >> thank you, we appreciate it. >> yes, i've been called a racist, and in no uncertain

terms. i'm not a racist. i can't, you know... i'm not going to try to attempt to defend it. what i do is i let my actions speak, and how i conduct myself and how i treat people speak. >> narrator: the st. george advocates argue that the racial and financial implications of their plan are being exaggerated. but the opponents point to a 2013 analysis by lsu economists which predicts the new city would be around 70% white and leave baton rouge with a big annual deficit. >> people who do things that have racial implications always say that race has nothing to do with it. i mean, i'm not judging what their personal motivations are, but nobody ever says, "we intentionally just want to discriminate" when they do something that will have the effect of deepening inequality. >> narrator: despite the opposition, the petition to make st. george a reality is picking up steam.

at the end of 2013, the group said it had over 9,000 signatures-- half of what's needed to get the issue put on a ballot. >> narrator: the reverend c.l. bryant, a tea party activist, came to baton rouge to support the st. george movement. >> amen. >> hello, my fellow louisianians. you have, i believe, a very unique opportunity. you have people who want to divide us down racial lines. you must do what is right for your pocketbook, and don't you

be afraid of what they call you. don't you allow anyone to turn you back from that. americans, i would ask you to stand up! stand up! >> i'm happy to see all of you tonight. >> these folks are trying to do what's right, and as we go through this campaign, there's a lot of pressure. there will be a lot of folks trying to scare you. that's the name of the game, it's called intimidation. >> the middle class in this parish, you're taking back control of your kids and your destiny. >> this evening made me very sad. that basically they're now talking about this, you know, in terms of income and that it's okay to segregate yourself from poor people. and that it is okay for you to do what is right for your

pocketbook without thinking about your entire community and the people that you're harming in the process. it was... it was very sad. >> good turnout. >> oh, i expected that. >> this group of white parents want to have the best for their children, and forget about anybody else. >> narrator: state representative patricia smith has been a vocal opponent of the effort to create the new school district. >> the proponents of the school district don't like to hear this, but it's totally going to be segregation. when you look at the children who will be removed from the east baton rouge parish school system, children who are going to go into this new st. george, the majority of children are white, and the majority of children that will be removed from st. george will be black. >> do you think that you have to bus children all over, bus them long distance, so you can say you sit in a seat next to someone diverse, different from yourself? the justice department, you

know, they achieved their goal. who can say we're not desegregated? we have an african-american president, we have an african-american mayor here in baton rouge with a majority white in the parish. we've been through all that. we need to let us go back and rebuild our schools now. >> i believe that folks are beginning to get in their heads, many conservatives are saying, "we have a black president, so we don't have to worry about anything else dealing with black folk across the country." that is not true. we're now beginning to realize that you can never stop the fight for racial equality. you can never stop that fight. >> i think baton rouge as a whole will suffer. not just our schools. and i don't think that people should have the right to change history. they are taking resources from people that need them the most.

all schools should be created equal. >> narrator: the st. george advocates say they are getting close to their goal and are within a few thousand signatures of getting on the ballot later this year. >> this can be wonderful for all of us, for our families. we can have a great city of st. george. it doesn't mean it has to hurt the city of baton rouge. the only one who's going to hurt the city of baton rouge is baton rouge. i'm tired of hearing the remarks in the news media and in the paper about how it's going to destroy east baton rouge parish, how it's going to destroy baton rouge. the only way that happens is if they let it. (applause) >> narrator: months later, in mid-may, the city council would pass a measure designed to stop the st. george petition, and the

group has vowed to fight back in court. >> we've got a wonderful opportunity here. the state capital can't stop this. the city council can't stop this. mayor holden can't stop this. as long as we want it. (applause) >> narrator: coming up next on frontlinas a teen, omarina was part of an innovative program to prevent her from

dropping out of school. >> omarina really struggles with the opportunities she has. >> narrator: did it work? >> i can't just think about all the things that are going wrong. i just think about the things that might be going right. >> narrator: omarina's story begins right now. ♪ >> ♪ dona nobis pacem, pacem ♪ ♪ dona nobis pace♪. >> narrator: it's the last day of the semester at the brooks school, an exclusive private academy in north andover, massachusetts. omarina cabrera is halfway

through her sophomore year. >> i remember first getting here, it definitely was an adjustment. >> we pray for our families... >> a lot of kids here are very wealthy and well off, and their parents are very important people. i go back to a two-bedroom apartment in the middle of the bronx. >> and we pray for our school, that we may always be a home for innocence and truth. >> and then i come here, and the environment was definitely a shock. >> give us this day our daily bread... >> narrator: that she made it here at all is surprising. without the help of a groundbreaking program in middle school, she probably wouldn't have. (sirens) we've been following omarina since 2012, when we began examining the dropout crisis in america's high-poverty schools. at that time, she was a student at middle school 244 in the bronx, and she had been struggling. >> my first year here, me and my mom got evicted.

i felt shattered. that was the home that i had for my whole life, and i grew up there. i didn't know what was going to happen next. that period of not knowing wasn't something that i felt comfortable with. i felt this inkling in me that i would never want my children or anyone else to experience this. >> narrator: shuffled between relatives' apartments, some without even electricity, omarina suffered another loss. >> when i was really young, my father walked out, for whatever reason. i finally got in touch with him. just before we were about to talk and i was about to go see him, he had gotten a stroke. and i had to leave to the dominican republic and see my father for the first time, and it was in a casket. >> narrator: with her home life in chaos, omarina's school life began to suffer. she didn't know it, but she was starting down a path that so many other young people take.

every year, over a million students fail to finish high school. but omarina was lucky: her school had recently implemented an experimental program designed to catch faltering students like her. >> even kids in the most dire circumstances really want a future. they just need to have a path to it. >> narrator: robert balfanz, one of the nation's top education researchers, had been searching for that path for 15 years by studying kids who were dropping out of high school. then he realized that the key moment when kids begin to go off track was actually in middle school. >> what does that refer to? stephanie? >> when nine divides the parabola into two equal parts. >> if in the middle grades, you develop habits of not coming to school regularly, of getting in trouble or failing your courses, you bring that with you to high school. and the schools aren't designed to help them succeed. >> narrator: in search of the warning signs that could help

schools identify their most at-risk students, balfanz and his team harvested data from dozens of high-poverty schools-- schools where at least 40% of the kids qualify for government-subsidized lunch. >> we looked at about 40 different variables, and we put that into a big statistical analysis and said, "we want factors that are highly reliable and also yield a large number of kids in trouble." >> narrator: and within this chaotic tangle of data, several important indicators stood out. >> and basically, out of this mix, four came out really strong. and that was our sort of eureka moment. i saw kids waving their hands saying, "help. help me stay on track." >> narrator: the data showed that if a sixth-grade child in a high-poverty school is absent more than 20% of the time, or fails math or english, or receives an unsatisfactory behavior grade in a core course,

there is a 75% chance that they will drop out of high school unless there is decisive intervention. >> it may seem far less than rocket science, but it's something that, in fact, schools by and large have not paid attention to. >> narrator: but middle school 244 did. at the direction of principal dolores peterson, it became one of the first schools in the nation to put balfanz's theories into action. >> the balfanz research was so interesting to us because we looked at it and we said, "this is a great way to identify our students at a very early stage." >> narrator: students like omarina, who had been showing up late or not at all. >> at the beginning, i felt alone and i felt ashamed, and i didn't want to speak to anyone about it. i just isolated myself from everything and everyone. >> narrator: but the data spoke for omarina.

every week at middle school 244, statistics are collected and reviewed by a team of counselors and teachers. >> attendance... everyone's with me? >> yes. >> let's go to 802. omarina. how is omarina doing? >> narrator: the students most in need are flagged. >> currently, her mother's not even in the united states right now. she was in a shelter not that long ago. then they were evicted, so she's having to go between relatives. >> narrator: a counselor is assigned, and an intervention is organized. >> i took her home one day, and it's like a... it's a double commute. it's a bus to a train. it's on the other side of the world, you can say. >> i can't tell you how much i worry every time she leaves this building. >> when she leaves this building, you know, she's on her own. >> our students face challenges sometimes that young children shouldn't have to face. and they need that support of the adult to help them through it. >> it's all going to work out, and it's...

>> narrator: catherine miller was omarina's homeroom teacher. >> so once omarina was identified, it was imperative on my part as a homeroom teacher, in consultation with the guidance counselor and administration, to discuss why she was coming in late so many times. >> they came to me and they asked me, "what's wrong? you've been late a lot. something has to be wrong." and that's when i told ms. miller that i was evicted. >> your mother needs to feel safe, or she needs to feel good about where you are, as do you. and the best we can do right now... we can compile thousands of numbers about who's failing this or who's passing that, but if there's no response to that data, if there's no initiative taken to understand that data, it's all for naught. >> narrator: it became clear that a chaotic home life was the source of omarina's problems at school, and she needed targeted practical support. >> so you're going to take this one today... >> narrator: the team helped her figure out routes to school from ever-changing addresses, got her a bus pass and books.

>> ms. miller told me that i can break through it, that i'm strong enough, that i have the courage to do it. and the fact that she believed in me, i believed in me. and that's something that a lot of people go through. >> they need an adult counterforce, someone to say, "did you get your work done? let me make sure you understand it." and also deal with, like, "i know you're having trouble with this teacher or that teacher or these kids. let's work it out. let's solve it now." it's that sense of shepherding is what the kids need to know that an adult not only cares, but the adult can actually help them. >> how's it going at home? >> it's good. it's not completely settled because of my mom, but i think it's calmer than before. my first year here, i had a lot of different things going on. i had my brother, who was so smart, and he was just like me. he's my twin. my brother began to be exposed to a lot of the things that were out there. and not only him, but a lot of us were. not a lot of kids make the right choice, and that is happening

a lot of times in the bronx for a lot of people. >> narrator: in the summer after sixth grade, omarina's twin brother, omarlin, started hanging out on the streets and getting in trouble. his mother had him moved to another school, thinking he'd be safer in a different neighborhood. but when we met him at the end of eighth grade, omarlin was rarely attending school, and his high school plans were uncertain. >> where am i going to go to high school? i don't know. i haven't gotten a letter yet of acceptance. >> the fact that he got involved with the streets and the fact that he let the neighborhood influence him, he just began slipping off the mountain, slipping off, slipping off, slipping off. it really was a difficult time for me. however, i think the only reason

i got through it was because of support people brang to me, ms. miller and my guidance counselor. the fact that they told me, "you're bright and you're special," and drove me and encouraged me, told me never to quit and never let your dreams end at the corner of sedgwick avenue. i don't think i would be where i am today. (applause) and i wish my brother could have gone on the journey with me, as well. >> narrator: soon, omarina had achieved near perfect attendance and had an average in the 90s. >> it's not a linear, it's not a quadratic. who agrees and why? omarina. >> because when you solve negative b over 2a to get the vertex... >> narrator: and her teachers encouraged her to apply to some of the nation's best high schools. >> that was your best essay. read it to me again. i love it! >> "typically, young adults look upon a political figure or someone in their life for guidance and support. i, on the other hand, seem to find this inspiration within

a black-and-white street sign. imprinted on the sign are the words 'one way.' it taunts me with another reminder that coming in is not the obstacle, but making it out." i don't think that me and my brother are on the same road, and i think he fell off and it's really sad. the way you take in school is important. he didn't, and that's why we're going on different paths, i guess. >> any school can use this system to keep kids on track, and what's going to vary from school to school is the extent they're going to need to recruit an outside second shift of adults to help, and that's going to really just depend on the sheer number of kids. >> narrator: there are now more schools with intervention programs like middle school 244's than when we filmed there two years ago, but they are still very rare in america's high-poverty communities. >> that's what makes it so

interesting with my brother. i think that's what i would be. i would be not in the school, and i think i would be... i wouldn't care, and the fact that i would get into a college wouldn't be that big of a deal. and the fact that i go on to high school, that wouldn't matter to me. "i can get my ged later," that's what i would say. >> narrator: as middle school was coming to an end, omarina learned she'd been accepted at nine competitive high schools. >> omarina, i'm so excited for you. so what did you decide? which school did you choose? >> after giving it a lot of thought, i went with brooks. >> so are you excited? >> yeah. >> i know i am! how does it feel, ms. miller? >> it's very humbling. and i'm incredibly proud of your accomplishments. >> oh, ms. miller! you're going to make me cry!

>> narrator: it was a momentous achievement for a girl who was at risk of becoming one of balfanz's statistics just two years earlier. now it was off to the elite learning environment of brooks, where both the students and the expectations would be very different than what she was used to. the question was, would all the work in middle school pay off here? so we've been keeping track of how omarina and, by comparison, her brother omarlin, have been doing. >> when i first came here, i was nervous that i was way too different to fit in here. there was a senior who greeted us at the door. she smelled like strawberries. everyone is really well off and there's people... on their vacation they travel to argentina and they travel

to china. so yeah, there's times when you notice little subtle comments, or little subtle things that aren't really even meant for... people don't even mean to say them or do them, but they just happen, they just come out because people aren't aware or people haven't been exposed to certain things. i think they are genuinely curious and genuinely want to know how i do my hair in the morning, or do i think in spanish? or... i don't know, was i born here? >> brooks school is not the same school that she came from in new york. it certainly does not have the same kind of ethnic makeup as what she's used to, so she has, i think, felt out of place at times here. >> it might be hard at times, and it might feel impossible to change everyone's mind about what a girl from the bronx should look like or should act like. i feel like it's important to try so that they don't make others feel as uncomfortable as they made me. >> narrator: in this new environment, the pressure

on omarina isn't just social. in the beginning, she says, she struggled to keep up in class. >> one-zero equals two, one-one equals three... >> for the first half of the semester, i kept getting these horrible grades, and i didn't understand why. >> look at the last digit. >> i remember getting my first quiz back and almost throwing up because i had a 60%. and i think that was the moment when i realized, "yeah, i'm not getting by if i don't work really, really, really hard." during those times when, you know, it feels like a little bit too much, not even just socially but academically as well-- and there are those times at brooks, there are those meltdowns-- i feel like i do have a strong faculty to support me. i have the help of mrs. ware, i have ms. miller, who is always with me regardless of where i am. (phone ringing) miss miller, i call her "mama miller." >> good morning! >> good morning. >> what classes do you have this morning?

>> i have algebra ii, latin... she's seen me grow up. >> how did you study for the chem test? >> just went over my notes... i'm very, very, very fortunate to have her. >> i felt as though it was really imperative to keep very constant contact. >> bye, miss miller, love you! >> just to make sure that the adjustment was going well, but also knowing that, you know, many people were rooting for her to be successful here in the bronx. >> you're messing with me. don't take away what i have. don't you dare do that to me! ...i messed up. (laughs) >> narrator: she was determined to succeed, and the teachers at brooks saw her potential. >> omarina, what do you need to do to get better? >> memorize my lines. >> that's the nuts and bolts. >> come back later today, and i will have it graded. >> i had four dorm parents, i had my advisor, i had all my teachers always making sure i was okay, always constantly there. >> omarina is not the kind of kid that lets mediocrity rule. she's not happy with that at all, and so she gets kind of feisty and angry and wants to fix it.

and so it's been great to kind of watch that growth in her and watch her kind of come into her own that way. >> i feel like i've widened my perspective so much being here. i've seen so much-- i've seen too much, almost-- to go back to how i was talking and living and acting, and if you'd see me in the street, i don't think you'd recognize me. >> so what if i asked you to graph this thing that's changing over time? >> well, zero is there so it would go away from it, so it wouldn't be negative. >> start negative, zero, positive, zero, negative... >> i caught up and i got good midterm grades. i'm excited about that and i'm proud. >> blessed be god, blessed be our life together. blessed be our food this night and our fellowship. we ask these things in god's name. amen. (kids talking happily) >> have a great time tonight at the dance. you look amazing. (music playing)

>> after my freshman year, my sophomore year, now this is a good year. you're kind of just floating. (music continues) i just need to keep looking ahead and just keep going, keep moving a step at a time. >> narrator: but just as omarina was getting on track at brooks, she received a disturbing call. >> it was a tuesday morning. i feel like you know when something's wrong. i couldn't ignore the feeling that i had in my stomach. >> why are we so powerless to save the people we love? >> narrator: there was news of her twin brother, omarlin. >> i immediately thought, "is he dead? just tell me if he's dead." >> i want to tell you why i did it. >> narrator: omarlin had been shot. police said the shooter fled the scene.

her brother survived and was recovering at home. >> i was scared and sad and disappointed and worried, but i can't show that to him. i feel like... and it is hard sometimes, but i can't show him that i'm scared. i can't show him that i'm sad or i'm disappointed, because he doesn't need that. he needs someone there to be strong for him. >> narrator: that someone most often has to be omarina herself, because their mother is frequently not at home. >> there was no question that she was going to go down and be with her family. omarina really struggles with the opportunities she has at brooks and kind of this path that's been laid out for her. you really saw the disparities in the worlds that she balances in that moment where she was so concerned about his safety and his family and making sure someone was going to be there for him because her mother was out of town.

and she knows that her brother's kind of stuck at home in this world that's full of vices and difficulty. i think that with that guilt comes feeling more responsible and feeling like she wants to do everything she can to help. >> narrator: so omarina makes regular trips home to the bronx, juggling the competing demands of her schoolwork and her sense of responsibility to her brother. >> hey! >> (laughing) >> where were you? i try very hard not to ever cry in front of him. i hope he does realize that i do care and that's why i do the things i do and that's why i always nag him. did you get transferred or are you still in the process? what's going to happen with that? >> it's not going to take long,

right? >> when it first started was seventh grade, when his education got hurt because he began, you know, getting involved with something he did get involved. it made me uncertain and it made me worry because i know where this is headed. i mean, i don't think... i think everyone knows where this is headed, and people can be ignorant to it but i know where this is headed, and what he needs is intervention. >> narrator: omarlin is reluctant to talk about what's going on in his life, or about the bullet that could have ended it.

>> narrator: so while omarina is finishing her sophomore year at brooks, omarlin, who is 16 years old, is still in the ninth grade. at the time of filming, he had only shown up for school five times all year. >> we actually know that kids are resilient, and so it still makes sense to have strong recovery efforts in high school and strong high school reform efforts and you'll still be able to turn kids around, put them back on track. but it gets much harder. >> narrator: in late february 2014, omarlin was charged with carrying a knife. two weeks later, he was charged with possession of ecstasy and marijuana. the cases are pending.

>> i handle stress in different ways. when i get to brooks, i use it as almost my getaway. i can't just think and think and think and think about all the things that are going wrong. i just think about the things that might be going right. >> narrator: next time... >> my dad got laid off. >> it's tough because my mom and dad are poor. >> i live in a shelter. i wish i never lived here. >> my mom kind of made a wrong turn. (whispering): i'm hungry. >> (whispering): i know, so am i. >> i think when i get older, things are going to get harder than they are now. >> people don't realize what they have until it's gone.

>> go to pbs.org/frontline for more on the debate over community schools. >> it's about bringing schools back to our community. >> how segregated are american schools today? find out more. watch our 2012 film on the "middle school moment." >> what if you could change the future for kids on a fast track to dropping out of school? >> and connect to thfrontline community, sign up for our newsletter, and follow us on facebook, twitter and pbs.org/frontline. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org.

additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. the wyncote foundation. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from susan hunter and douglas watson and the orfalea foundation. >> for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

>> frontline'"separate and unequal" is available on dvd. to order, visit shoppbs.org. or call 1-800-play-pbs. frontline is also available for download on itunes.

>> there's just something about them that just makes you fall in love with them. >> they're your children. ferrets are children with little fur coats. >> well, they're definitely family. >> joe seems to think i spoil my ferrets, but to me, i think they're just right. >> every once in a while, if you hold 'em just right, they'll kiss you on the nose, or-- or lick you, or something like that. >> if i went to my psychiatrist and said, "yes, i understand what my ferrets are saying," i'd be on little funny-colored pills. >> they are my family. i just can't imagine life without them. to me, ferrets are the reason for being. i can't put it any more simply.