CNN Student News Special: Black in America

Story Highlights:

All summer long, CNN Student News is publishing special Webcasts

On today's show, we highlight CNN Presents: Black in America

Visit schools in two American cities that are targeting the dropout rate

(CNN Student News) -- July 28, 2008

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Carl Azuz and this is CNN Student News. Thanks for taking a vacation from your vacation to check out our latest summer Webcast. Today, we're focusing on a sensitive and sometimes controversial topic. But it's also part of our country's history, from slavery to the civil rights movement. Forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King's death, CNN has launched "Black in America." It's a huge project that examines stereotypes and statistics and asks what it means to be black in America today. These special reports investigate health issues, like the devastating toll of HIV and AIDS on the African-American community. They also explore the progress of black men and women in the professional world and the black middle class.

One of the biggest topics that "Black in America" addresses is education and the disparities between black and white students. Soledad O'Brien visited a school in New York that's working to close that gap.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Principal Elijah Hawkes of the James Baldwin School in New York City says his school has something most principals only dream about: a 94% graduation rate.

ELIJAH HAWKES, PRINCIPAL, JAMES BALDWIN SCHOOL: The only way one can do this work and do it well is if you believe that a student failing in your class is your responsibility.

O'BRIEN: It's a new public school, made up mostly of transfer students and paid for with taxpayer money. The classes are very small; just 17 seniors last year. But what's most surprising: many of the students were failing out before coming here. How bad were your grades?

MARK, STUDENT, JAMES BALDWIN SCHOOL: Failed every class.

O'BRIEN: Really?

MARK: Yeah.

O'BRIEN: So you came here as a failing student?

MARK: Yes.

O'BRIEN: What are your grades now?

MARK: It's like B-minus.

O'BRIEN: Your graduation rate is significantly higher than the average graduation rate in New York City public schools. With far fewer students, I'll give you, but much higher.

HAWKES: Having your voice heard can equate to passing your class.

O'BRIEN: Almost half the students are African-American. A Harvard University study shows black children start falling behind academically by age 3. A separate Harvard study found in urban areas, the average black student performs on a level about 4 years below his peers. Over a million students attend New York City public schools. About three-quarters are minorities and 70 percent are impoverished.

JOEL KLEIN, CHANCELLOR, NEW YORK SCHOOLS: For as long as anyone can remember in America, our African-American and Latino students are way underperforming white and Asian students.

O'BRIEN: Schools like Baldwin are fighting to change that.

MARK: I just thought if I could, like, if I was guided the right way, I would succeed.

O'BRIEN: The school's success proves size matters...

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[toronto0009]

blacks are self haters

[toronto0009]

black people are self haters yuck all they want is to mix with any other race except black

[Scopps94]

@TheRightThinker you actually make a great point :), but i dont think that's the reason the american media promotes black progression in your society, but more of an awareness to the rest of the public what ethnic minorities can achieve as well as the ordinary white american, im a black living in Britain so i dont think i have a say to this but the idea is clear, I just hope we can come to the point when we wont need to use the race card anymore.

[casualgerm]

@TheRightThinker keep crying

[casualgerm]

@TheRightThinker keep crying

[TheRightThinker]

I'm looking forward to "White in America" but it will never come out. Black president, black attorney general, black supreme court justice, black governors, black federal judges - still America is a racist country, just a way to justify their failures. A real person doesn't cry how hard it is to be black, he goes and gets educated, starts working and earns his title. What do you expect when Al Sharpton represents your race.

[bobalose3and88]

carl: nobody likes ur stupid puns. cnn student news would b worth watching if there were an anchor who was serious about the news and didnt spend 98% of his time thinking about ways to make the show "funny." i have never laughed once at your "puns"

[axsmith234]

lol 5:50 funniest shit ive ever heard

[axsmith234]

@TheFreesubs12 motha fucka you should of printed it. that was not any bodies fault but yours stfu and get your shit together....

[1111GENESIS]

The crack cocaine that the C.I.A admittedly flooded into Black communities has nothing to do with the problem I'm sure....