The circumstances vary, but a common denominator is a principal who won't accept failure. Most children at Gaston Middle are poor, black and high-achieving.
Students talk about their experience in segregated high schools.
Your browser needs the Flash plug-in to view the presentation. The racket from the 30 students in Dallas Allen's classroom would make most adults cringe. As loud and as fast as they can, the sixth-graders chant while pounding on their desks. Thirty seconds later, the students have their books open on their desks, and Allen plunges headlong into an animated, high-energy English lesson. His class is taking place at Gaston Middle School, a worn-out building in a crossroads community 80 miles northeast of Raleigh.