As the nation grapples with the best way to close the education-achievement gaps along lines of class and race, Steve Perry has emerged as a voice for change. He is the founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School, a public school in Hartford renowned for a near zero percent dropout rate and 100 percent of students, most members of racial minorities, going on to four-year colleges. Perry grew up just outside Hartford, raised by a teenage mother in an impoverished housing project. But that didn't stop him from earning a bachelor's (Rhode Island), a master's (Penn) and a doctorate (Hartford) before returning to his hometown to help others. "I had to be a principal at some point, or a prisoner," he told CNN in 2009. "Because I spent more time in the principal's office than the principal." Now, he is an education contributor to the network. He is also the author of Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve -- Even If It Means Picking a Fight. Like his Facebook page.