. >> reporter: professor carl alexander and a team tracked 800 children, surveying them through school and following them into adulthood until age 28. half were scrd urban -- considered urban disadvantaged, living at or near the poverty line. >> reporter: you followed up year after year. >> i thought it was cool. >> i never had anyone send letters in the mail. they'd call me and send me a postcard for my birthday. >> it was cool someone seeing how i was doing, concerned about what i wanted to do. my goals and aspirations. >> what did you say your goals and aspirations were? >> when i was younger, law enforcement. i was strong-headed on law enforcement. despite the goals expressed by the children the research concluded that 4% of urban disadvantaged students went to college and completed a 4-year degree. the vast majority of students returned to their poverty school. >> kids that grew up in low income distressed neighbourhoods had lower levels of completed schooling, lower status jobs and earnings as young adults. >> another stunning discovery, there's a big distance. >> we call it whit

joining the table now is carl alexander, professor of sociology at johns hopkins university and co-author study "the long shadow: family background, disadvantaged urban youth." part of what i'd like you to do, we're hearing about the big policy picture. we know something about tianna's personal story. if you put it in context for us of a 25-year study, what do you know about poverty and what tends to keep people there and what tends to provide an avenue out. >> thanks so much for having me on, first. it's an honor to be here with tianna. her story is riveting, inspiring and it won't surprise that many of the children that we followed over this 25-year period in our project follow a similar path, struggling along the way and working hard to make a go of it. we thought that this was going to be a book about achieving success by doing well in school, which is what we tell our children to do. and many of these young people try to follow that good advice, but as your statistic at the outset indicated, with little success, only 4% of the children we classify as urban disadvantaged, low income a