As the pioneering researcher who developed the Promoting Power Index of measuring high school academic failure and the man who coined the term ‘”dropout factories“, Robert Balfanz knows all too well about how the nation’s worst public schools retard the educational destinies of the children who attend them. From his perspective, it is as critical to turn around these schools as it is to deal with other causes of racial-, ethnic- and gender-based achievement gaps.

Watch this video of Balfanz’s testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee earlier this year on the need to reform the worst high schools (you can watch other HEL videos at the majority leadership’s YouTube page. And pay attention to his most-important point of all: Improving the quality of American public education — and helping all children achieve their fullest potential — isn’t insurmountable. It can be done — and it should.

You can also watch other Dropout Nation videos on YouTube.