The overall graduation rate for black male students in New York City was 58 percent in 2014 - student retention rates are equally poor. But one school achieved a 100% on-time graduation rate last year, motivating their students with a student-founded, student-sustained 'fraternity'.

A school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, has been specifically engineered to reflect the true diversity of NYC. It's one of the only schools in the district that does so: 39% white, 33% black, 20% combined Hispanic and Asian, and 8% "other."

Research shows that higher rates of gun ownership lead to higher rates of violent crime - countless examples in the continental United States seem to support this. But Hawaii, with some of the highest gun sale numbers in the country, has rock-bottom gun violence rates - universal background checks and the natural ocean barrier that discourages smuggling are just some of the ways they've achieved this.

U.S. Hispanics who pass down a tradition of food, family, and healing are healthier. But as generations become more assimilated, many are adjusting to less healthy diets and habits.

As school poverty rates goes up, learning and test scores fall. At Gildo Ray elementary school in Washington state uses a teaching method called director or explicit instruction, in which children learn from a structured approach to teaching with teacher-guided practice. Gildo Ray’s test scores in math and reading are among the highest in the state.

For a decade, Massachusetts has led the nation in student performance, ranking high internationally, too. What are they doing that we aren’t? Funding their schools, for one thing. But it’s also about how you spend the money.

Three African countries are successfully reducing the transmission of HIV through treatment and education, surpassing many developed countries in reducing cases. Although each is unique, the key lessons include using comprehensive, community-based approaches and strategies that involve collective action.

The rate of roadway deaths in Sweden is at an international low due to an approach called Vision Zero. Now the country’s approach faces perhaps its stiffest test: the streets of New York City.

Brown's Super Stores operates seven profitable supermarkets in traditionally food desert neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The founder says it's because they brought together a group of community leaders and asked them exactly what they were looking for in a neighborhood grocery store, and used the information to truly create a space for the broader community that often includes health care clinics, banking services, event space, and more.

Urban areas contain the highest in concentration of burning fossil fuels, which negatively contributes to climate change. Spearheading the green energy movement, Burlington, VT claims that its city uses 100% renewable energy for electricity. Burlington’s efforts pilot a model for larger U.S. cities to follow.

It's been a decade since the city of Rochester, New York, committed to tackling its lead poisoning problem head on. What resulted was a more than 80 percent drop in the number of children with high lead levels. It's a change leaders believe is sustainable.