Cohn's slickly edited verité-style storytelling lets each person's humanity rise to the top, just enough to mix expected poignancy with a simple clarity about the struggles of low-income, opportunity-challenged souls.

Cohn merely chronicles three unforgettable people, the kind who are imminently easy to root for, and allows us to realize that they're not that different from us or the legions like them trying to better themselves.

We live in a culture that tends to give up for good on dropouts. Greg, Melissa, and Shynika are living proof that there's no expiration date on "back to school."