State of Opportunity

Series produced by Michigan Radio

Caption: State of Opportunity from Michigan Radio
State of Opportunity from Michigan Radio 

What can be done to break the cycle of poverty and improve opportunities for the most disadvantaged children?

Michigan Radio’s State of Opportunity project is looking at what can be done to break the cycle of poverty and improve opportunities for the most disadvantaged children. We’re examining the impact that healthcare, schools, family, the local community, and public policy have on child development…from cradle to college.


105 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Special education still a high-stakes gamble in Michigan. What can parents do?
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Kayle Roose and her son Aiden. She says Aiden's experience in school is improving., Credit: SARAH ALVAREZ
For a long time, kids with disabilities were mistreated in school or pushed out. Now, there are laws to make sure they have an equal shot at an edu...

Bought by Delta College Public Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 20, 2015
  • Length: 03:47
  • Purchases: 2
Home for the holidays, in a dorm room
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Piece image
In early December, most college students are packing their bags and heading home for the holiday break. Except for those who've experienced foster ...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 20, 2015
  • Length: 03:40
  • Purchases: 1
11 years before Ferguson, there was outrage in Benton Harbor. Have things changed?
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: "Tired of living like this," says Krishna Harding, a 26-year old resident of Benton Harbor. "Section 8, government-based houses, Medicaid and stuff like that. I’m tired of it.", Credit: DUSTIN DWYER / MICHIGAN RADIO
It’s not a new story: A young black man dies after an encounter with police. A community takes to the streets to demand answers. Their protest turn...

Bought by Delta College Public Radio


  • Added: Feb 06, 2015
  • Length: 03:42
  • Purchases: 1
Offering a place to call home when home isn't an option
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: The Kids First building, an emergency foster shelter at D.A. Blodgett - St. John's in Grand Rapids., Credit: DUSTIN DWYER / MICHIGAN RADIO
Some children are taken from their homes on short notice. Some are taken in the middle of the night. For kids entering Michigan’s foster care syste...

  • Added: Feb 06, 2015
  • Length: 03:27
A vision for how to make school choice work better in Detroit
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Dan Varner, Credit: Dan Varner
We have the story of one person’s journey. It’s not a journey across land, or across oceans. It is a journey to try to figure out what it will take...

  • Added: Feb 06, 2015
  • Length: 03:23
Muskegon Heights schools were in trouble. Then the district made history. Twice.
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Dancers from the Muskegon Heights High School Academy perform during the Festival in the Park parade earlier this summer., Credit: DUSTIN DWYER / MICHIGAN RADIO
Two years ago, Muskegon Heights made history by becoming the first school district in Michigan to convert entirely to a charter district, and turn ...

  • Added: Feb 06, 2015
  • Length: 58:31
Crime in Flint is down, but violence is still taking a big toll on young people
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Officer Jesse Carpenter, left, and staff of the Haskell Youth Center in Flint., Credit: HASKELL CENTER
In Flint this summer, crime rates are down compared to last year. But there is still a lot of violence in that city and a lot of young people tryin...

  • Added: Feb 06, 2015
  • Length: 03:43
Detroit kids go to camp to do things they can't do in the city
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Detroit students get to practice archery at Camp Burt Shurly., Credit: JENNIFER GUERRA / MICHIGAN RADIO
Michigan Radio’s State of Opportunity reporter Jennifer Guerra recently spent the day with about one-hundred elementary school students at Camp Bur...

  • Added: Jan 23, 2015
  • Length: 03:21
Teaching students how to switch between Black English and Standard English can help them get ahead
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Piece image
Black students consistently lag behind their white peers on standardized tests. Experts have been trying to come up with ways to shrink the achieve...

Bought by WABE and Delta College Public Radio


  • Added: Jan 23, 2015
  • Length: 03:54
  • Purchases: 2
When you live in poverty, a lot can get in the way of graduating
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Keisha Johnson (left) graduated from a 15-week computer tech training program, something she's been aiming for since 2012., Credit: JENNIFER GUERRA / MICHIGAN RADIO
Making it to graduation is a given for a lot of people. It’s just one of the many steps on the path to a career. But for some it’s not that easy. O...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass. and KUOW


  • Added: Jan 16, 2015
  • Length: 03:59
  • Purchases: 2
They come and go. It's noisy. But these 5th-graders still picked up some big lessons.
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: The fifth-grade students at Myers Elementary like to play basketball during recess., Credit: JENNIFER GUERRA / MICHIGAN RADIO
Our State of Opportunity reporter Jennifer Guerra spent months hanging out in a 5th grade classroom near Detroit. At the beginning of the school ye...

  • Added: Jan 16, 2015
  • Length: 03:35
How Jackson, Michigan managed to reduce teen pregnancy and infant mortality with only $8,000
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Members of Jackson's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative get together to congratulate graduating seniors and welcome new peer educators into the program., Credit: SARAH ALVAREZ / MICHIGAN RADIO
The problems created by poverty can be so difficult to fix that cities with a lot of poverty, sometimes just don’t fix them. Jackson is a city with...

Bought by Delta College Public Radio


  • Added: Jan 16, 2015
  • Length: 03:39
  • Purchases: 1
"Flint," a piece by two young poets from, yes, Flint
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Yazmen Brown (left) and JaCquell Price, college students and slam poets from Flint., Credit: SARAH ALVAREZ
We asked Raise It Up!, an award winning arts organization in Flint, if the young artists they work with would like to contribute a poem for the sho...

  • Added: Feb 06, 2015
  • Length: 02:32
One way to avoid tears on the first day of kindergarten
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Abigail, a soon-to-be kindergartner., Credit: DUSTIN DWYER / MICHIGAN RADIO
In summer, there is a camp for everything. Swim camp, gymnastics camp, rock camp, Bible camp … there are even still camps where kids can go and act...

Bought by Delta College Public Radio


  • Added: Feb 13, 2015
  • Length: 03:35
  • Purchases: 1
When you want to play, but you have dreams that require work
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Musa, a new fourth-grader., Credit: DUSTIN DWYER / MICHIGAN RADIO
State of Opportunity’s Dustin Dwyer checks back in at Congress Elementary in Grand Rapids, a low-scoring school we've profiled in a documentary. Du...

  • Added: Feb 13, 2015
  • Length: 03:18
"I want people to not be afraid to reach out and help someone else."
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Joy Mohammed and Paris Brown, Credit: DUSTIN DWYER / MICHIGAN RADIO
In 2014, we launched an occasional series on State of Opportunity that we’re calling “One Person Who Cared.” These are stories of how one person ch...

  • Added: Feb 13, 2015
  • Length: 03:32
You want the cookie. How can you resist? One psychologist's strategy, and why it matters
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Can you resist the temptation?, Credit: FLICKR/GINNEROBOT
Here's a story about the time one of the most famous television characters in history re-enacted one of the most famous psychology experiments in h...

Bought by Delta College Public Radio


  • Added: Feb 13, 2015
  • Length: 03:06
  • Purchases: 1
Michigan business sees potential in teens others might dismiss
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: One of the manufacturing lines at Peckham Incorporated in Lansing., Credit: SARAH ALVAREZ / MICHIGAN RADIO
There are upwards of two hundred thousand young people in Michigan who aren't working and aren't in school. For many of them, getting off the fring...

Bought by Delta College Public Radio


  • Added: Feb 13, 2015
  • Length: 03:39
  • Purchases: 1
Teaching black kids about the police: "They have legal authority to kill you."
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Attorney Stephen Drew gives "survival tips" for police encounters during an event hosted by the Grand Rapids chapter of the NAACP., Credit: DUSTIN DWYER / MICHIGAN RADIO
At an ordinary community meeting in Grand Rapids, parents and kids joined in a stark conversation. The talk came with warnings and survival tips fo...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio


  • Added: Feb 13, 2015
  • Length: 03:26
  • Purchases: 1
How Daniel Lopez learned to stop fearing the worst, and started planning for the best
From: Michigan Radio
Series: State of Opportunity
Caption: Mr. Lopez goes to Washington., Credit: MICHELLE PAROLINI / PARK JOURNEYS, INC
We've heard it before: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. But for young people who come to the United States as immigrants, getting to know...

Bought by Delta College Public Radio


  • Added: Feb 13, 2015
  • Length: 03:34
  • Purchases: 1