At Booker T Washington Middle School in New Orleans’ recovery school district, Khalil Osiris is doing things a little bit differently. In his “Circle of Courage” class, students share their problems, concerns and desires with one another. One common desire? To get out of middle school and move on, at long last, to high school. Booker T is an alternative school that caters to students who have had trouble succeeding in a traditional school environment; many students at Booker T are 16 or 17 years old and are still performing at an elementary school level.

Osiris’ “Circle of Courage” is one strategy the school is using to try and help students stay out of trouble and pass their classes. But how much can sitting in a circle and talking really help?

Just 3% of Detroit’s fourth graders scored proficient in math on a national test last year, and Bobb says he intends to do something about it.  He hired a curriculum expert, and planned for school mergers and redesigns, even a school that would house pre-kindergarten through community college students.  But he has a problem - Detroit still has an elected school board, and they say they control academics, not Bobb.

Some schools set up benches outside and hold classes in the open air. But then, space becomes an issue; schools that once served 500 students may only be able to accommodate, say, 100. And all of this, of course, applies only to kids who went to school in the first place–less than half of Haiti’s youth went to school before the earthquake, and that number has plummeted now that so many families have lost everything.