MetroFocus to Explore Ways of Saving Struggling Schools in New York City, 4/3

MetroFocustakes a closer look at different approaches to saving failing schools. The New York Times' Liz Robbins and video journalist Emma Cott report from what was Adlai E. Stevenson High School in the Bronx, now called Adlai E. Stevenson Educational Campus and housing nine separate small schools within the one building. MetroFocusairs Wednesday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW21; Thursday, April 4 at 10:30p.m. on THIRTEEN; and Tuesday, April 9 at 10:30 p.m. on NJTV. After broadcast, the program will be available to national audiences on metrofocus.org with integrated online stories and additional reporting.

Host Rafael Pi Roman interviews Mary Conway-Spiegel, founder of a new organization called Partnership for Student Advocacy that is raising awareness and funds for schools closing in New York City. NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider talks to David Kirp, author and Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, about his book "Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America's Schools," which discusses the successful programs that revitalized the public schools in Union City, New Jersey.

Famous for her blog Generación Y that chronicles the daily lives of Cubans, Yoani Sánchez talks with Pi Roman in one of the few interviews conducted during her visit to the United States. In the interview, Sánchez discusses her efforts to find a way to distribute her writings on the internet, freedom of press, and her plans to return to Cuba despite the harassment that she endured there. Metrofocus.org features a longer clip from the interview as well as a transcript in English and Spanish.

Also featured on this edition: Dr. Robert Darnell, the president and scientific director of the soon-to-open New York Genome Center. He speaks with Pi Roman about the Center's new home in TriBeCa, how it brings together a near "dream team" of New York-area scientists, and the scientific frontiers to be explored there. Concluding the program, MetroFocusuncovers the secret of the Sweater Tree of Hell's Kitchen.

MetroFocusis a production of WLIW21 in association with WNET, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.

MetroFocus is made possible by James and Merryl Tisch, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Jody and John Arnhold, Bernard and Irene Schwartz, The Nissan Foundation, and The Ford Foundation. Corporate funding is provided by Mutual of America.

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