Frank Koughan

What does it take to save a student? Every year, hundreds of thousands of teenagers in the United States quit high school without diplomas – an epidemic so out of control that nobody knows the exact number. What is clear is that massive dropout rates cripple individual career prospects and cloud the country’s future. At Houston’s Sharpstown High, once a notorious “dropout factory,” a high-stakes experiment is underway to rescue students from the edge. FRONTLINE spent a semester immersed in Sharpstown High to produce an unforgettable portrait of four students in crisis and the teachers, counselors, and principal waging a daily, personal struggle to get them to graduation. A troubling and inspiring journey through the maze of an inner city high school, Dropout Nation investigates the causes, challenges, and potential solutions of a national emergency.

More than a decade ago, the Emmy-nominated documentary "Poor Kids" explored poverty in the United States as it’s rarely seen: through the eyes of children. "Born Poor" tells the stories of the same children, now grown, chronicling their lives from childhood to the present day. The 90-minute documentary follows Kaylie, Johnny and Brittany across three chapters of their lives as they grow from kids to teenagers to adults, trying to pursue their dreams while dealing with an economy where they face more obstacles than opportunities — and trying to overcome the grinding poverty that shaped their childhoods.

On the night she broke up with her boyfriend, a Florida deputy sheriff, Michelle O'Connell was found dead from a gunshot in the mouth. Next to her was her boyfriend's semi-automatic service pistol. The sheriff's office called it suicide, but was it? FRONTLINE and The New York Times investigate this death of a young, single mother, and what can go wrong when the police are faced with domestic violence allegations within their own ranks.

Jeff Bezos is not only one of the richest men in the world, he has built a business empire that is without precedent in the history of American capitalism. His power to shape everything from the future of work to the future of commerce to the future of technology is unrivaled. As politicians and regulators around the world start to consider the global impact of Amazon — and how to rein in Bezos’ power — FRONTLINE investigates how he executed a plan to build one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world.

Described by some military commanders as the deadliest urban combat since World War II, the battle to drive ISIS out of Mosul as the terror group held civilians captive there was brutal and grueling. Shot over the course of the entire nine-month fight, this vivid documentary follows the experiences of four young soldiers in a team of Iraqi Special Forces tasked with leading the battle.

FRONTLINE and ProPublica trace the violence, protests and arrests stemming from federal immigration sweeps across the United States. The documentary examines the tactics, legal cases and impact — from Los Angeles to Chicago to Minneapolis.

Thanks to social media, teens are able to directly interact with their culture - celebrities, movies, brands - in ways never before possible. But is that real empowerment? Or do marketers hold the upper hand? Douglas Rushkoff explores how the teen quest for identity has migrated to the web – and exposes the game of cat-and-mouse that corporations are playing with them.

FRONTLINE tells the story of how crisis and tragedy prepared Joe Biden to become America’s next president. Those who know him best describe the searing moments that shaped President-elect Biden and what those challenges reveal about how he will govern.