Secret weapons in the dropout fight: Experience and empathy

Danette McAlexander has not had an easy life — and she does not have an easy job.

McAlexander works with some of the most troubled students in Mississippi's Hattiesburg Public School District district. Her job is to keep them in school.

But McAlexander's got a secret weapon: Empathy. She was a dropout too.

"All the stuff I at one time viewed as bad, I can now look back — all the things that I experienced I can say are good because now I can relate to people who are in similar situations," McAlexander told Ellen Ciurczak of the Hattiesburg American. "I have a degree in life... I've been through the school of hard knocks."