cloud minnesota, i'm john tulenko of "education week," reporting for the pbs newshour. >> sreenivasan: stay with us, coming up on the newshour. the episcopal church's first african american presiding bishop explains why acting like christ would change the nation's politics. plus, an unusual sanctuary for an endangered butterfly. but first, the national urban league has released the 40th edition of its annual state of black america report. it's designed to provide a snapshot of where african americans are relative to whites. according to the most recent report's calculations, across multiple facets of life african americans experience equality at a rate of 72%, compared to white americans who score 100%. here to explain is marc morial, president and c.e.o. of the national urban league. let's start with that 72% number. how do you get there? what does that mean in. >> what it means is if you compare things like unemployment, home ownership, high school graduation rates, college attainment rates, median income, african americans on average achieve 72% that of where whites are. these are

special correspondent john tulenko of education week has this report as part of our weekly educationeries, "making the grade". >> reporter: vermont is a collection of small towns, many with just one or two schools, and where people feel they have a say in their children's education. >> people have a very loud voice, you know some people will say montpelier controls everything, there's really not a lot of voice left, well there is. >> reporter: like suzanne hull- parent, vermonters stay close with their schools through their locally elected school boards. there's one for almost every town. >> i've been on the school board for 12 years. i think when you have local people living in the community, making the decisions about their school the best they can, it's going to be more vested in the good of that community. >> reporter: something else about vermont schools, they're among the smallest in the country. >> you get more individual attention. i was blessed to have that and i'm blessed to have my children have that. my daughter feels like she has a voice and i'm not sure in a bigger plac

he worked closely with correspondents john merrow and john tulenko for more than a decade.ntly joined the education week team producing reports for us as well. his wide-ranging coverage ran from the transformation of new orleans' schools, to the battle over common core, to a new jersey school providing relief after superstorm sandy. david was a great colleague and friend-- a producer who frequently came up with the best ideas, yet rarely took the credit. david wald was 61 years old. and that is the newshour for tonight. on monday, we'll be back with a look at the economic power of latinos in the u.s. i'm judy woodruff. have a great memorial day weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> save lives, as many and as often as possible. there's 100 reasons why someone becomes a doctor, but at m.d. anderson, it's because there's nothing, and we mean nothing we won't do in making cancer history. >> you were born with two stories. one you write every day and one you inherited that's written in your dna. 23 and me.com is a gene