CNN
Jordan Norwood dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon. The 14-year-old Chicago boy is smart and hard working but because of the school he attends, he would have to defy nearly insurmountable odds to get into college, let alone make it through medical school.
"There isn't one urban school district in the country -- Chicago, L.A., New York, D.C. -- you could go right down the list -- Philly, Baltimore -- there's not one urban system yet, where the dropout rate is low enough and the graduation rate is high enough," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a recent interview with CNN. "There's been lots of progress, including in Chicago, but no one is satisfied. We have to get better faster."