Locating the Dropout Crisis. Which High Schools Produce the Nation’s Dropouts? Where Are They Located? Who Attends Them. This report, written by Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters, Center for Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University (June 2004) provides in-depth information that helps readers focus attention on the few cities and states where real change needs to take place.

The web site link is http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techReports/Report70.pdf

Who is mapping this information? In the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator,http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net , the Tutor/Mentor Connection demonstrate how maps created using Geographic Information Technology, can help readers turn tables of information, into more intuitive understanding. We show where poverty is most concentrated in Chicago, and where poorly performing schools are located. This shows the relationship of poverty and poor schools. We do this in an effort to draw more people who don’t live in poverty to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs serving kids in these neighborhoods. We belive that by expanding the adult network of support we can have an immediate impact on student aspirations. However, we also believe that by educating these adults about poverty, poor schools, the high drop out rated, etc., and how this affect them in their business, church, and suburban affluence, we can increase the army of people who are needed to make the dramatic public policy changes recommended in research like the one we show here.

If you know of anyone who is mapping the location of poorly performing schools in the high drop out cities, and who is sharing that information on the Internet, please add the web sites to this section of the Wiki, so that we can build a library of such examples, and use them to guide action plans that lead to better outcomes for students in these cities.

Is a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program a drop out prevention strategy? Can you share your mentoring strategy, or talk about drop-out prevention, during the May 29 and 30 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, being held in Chicago? Visit http://www.tutormentorconference.org to learn more.