. >>> i want to introduce you to high school senior maria castro. she dreams of studying engineering at stanford university. but does her public school give her the quality of education necessary for admission? and what can she do about it? soledad o'brien reports. >> maria, what is the ratios of the 45? >> the one, the one and the 2. >> reporter: maria wants a career that pays her, so she's pushing her school to get it. >> i would do a whole week's lesson, i was like okay this is too simple for me, i was like okay, what's next. >> reporter: do you worry that when you go off to college, you're not going to be prepared to compete? >> yeah. especially with this example, english, we're learning to count the whys and when to count the whys. that's things that my little sister should be learning, you know? >> reporter: it's because more than half of the 2,200 students at maria's school don't pass state wide tests in reading and math. >> when they come to school, they come in the fourth grade reading level and behind in math so we have a lot of catching up

but maria castro is different. class wasn't available, she decided to take matters into her own hands. take a look. >> maria, what is the ratios of the 45? >> the one and one and radical two? >> reporter: maria wants a career that pays well and is pushing herself and her school to get it. >> i was like, well, why isn't anybody like challenging me? i would do a whole week's lesson and it was just like, okay, this is too simple for me. okay, like what's next? >> do you worry that when you go off to college you're not going to be prepared to compete? >> yeah. especially like with just example, english. we're learning how to capitalize and when to capitalize. that's things that my little sister should be learning. you know? >> it's because more than half of the 2,200 students at maria's school don't pass statewide tests in reading, math. >> when they come to school, they come at the fourth grade reading level and behind in math so we really have a lot of catching up to do. >> it is just my little sister and i because ev

. >> reporter: among this year's competitors, maria castro, brian whited, shawn patel. >> i want to becomenford. >> reporter: junior maria castro is at the mostly latino high school in phoenix, arizona. the average family here makes less than $30,000 a year. ♪ guitar player brian whitehead is from middle-class seymour, tennessee. are there classes that you are not able to take because they're not offered in the school that you'd like to take? >> i guess any a.p. classes at all. ♪ >> reporter: sophomore shawn patel is from upper middle-class montgomery, new jersey. the son of indian immigrants, shawn is already taking two a.p. classes which leaves him little time for his favorite hobby, dancing. >> i'm taking spanish 4, u.s. history 1, a.p. statistics, english honors and chemistry honors. and if you add them all together, you get a loss of -- >> i wanted to see the answer, soledad. soledad joins me now from new york. somebody who has seen this documentary -- >> i can do the math for you later if you want. >> yes, could you do that? i know that you can. someone in house, because i know you h

among this year's competitors, maria castro, brian whitehead, shaun pattel, three grids three differentconomic backgrounds with very different opportunities. >> i want to be a solar engineer and i want to go to stanford engineer. >> reporter: junior mar are a castro is a student at the mostly latino high school in phoenix, arizona. the average family here makes less than $30,000 a year. >> maria, what is the ratios of the 45? >> the one and one and the radical two. >> one, one, radical two. beautiful thing, right? >> reporter: maria wants a career that pays well and is pushing herself and her school to get it. >> i was like, well, why isn't anybody challenging me? i mean, i would do a whole week's lesson in a class period. and i was just like, okay, this is too simple for me. it's like, okay, what's next? >> reporter: do you worry when you go off to college you're not going to be prepared to compete? >> yeah. especially like with this example, english. we're learning how to capitalize and when to capitalize. i mean, that's things my little sister should be learning, you know. >> reporte

. >> we talked to maria castro in that she has access either not to high-level math or science classesbut she is also representative of the students in schools that is grow, latino. and we wanted to talk about how she is different. because when she was not getting the high-level classes, she decided to change things. take a look. >> maria, what is the ratios of the 45? >> the 1 to 1 and the radical two. >> reporter: maria wants a career that pays well and pushing herself and her school to get it. >> i was like, why isn't anybody like challenging me? i would do a whole week's lesson, and i would say, this is too simple for me, so what is next. >> reporter: do you worry that when you go off to college, you not going to be prepared tom compete? >> yes. with example for english, we are learning how to capitalize and when to capitalize, and that is things that my little sister should be learning, you know. >> reporter: it is because more than half of the 2200 students at maria's school don't pass statewide tests in reading and math. >> when they come to school, you know, they come with the

maria. >> no doubt. 25 years of marriage. >> a long time. >>> we want to get you a check of your weather on this tuesday morning. marysol castro sta >>> thanks so much. that's your latest weather ert. now back over to christie and erica. welcome back. we missed you. >> nice to be back. >> we did miss you. >> i feel it. i feel the love. >> we did, we did. there was a pause for effect. >> thank you, thank you. >> still waking up. >> a possible serial killer case gets more complicated on long island. police believe they may have more than one killer on their hands. we'll update this story when we come back. >>> home prices falling once again. fewer people are buying. are we officially in a double dip. what could that mean for openers and sellers? we've got those answers just ahead. you're watching "the early show" on cbs. the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to