Six-time Grammy winner John Legend wrote the song "Shine," for Waiting For "Superman" and believes that this crisis is the civil rights issue of our time.

John attended a public school from eighth to 12th grade that's been classified as a "dropout factory." Yet, he says he benefited from tracking because he tested well and was therefore placed in the advanced placement classes. These classes are often taught by a school's best teachers.

"It's fine when you have an exception to the rule like myself and some of my other classmates in the advanced classes," John says. "But that's not a way to run a whole school."