Turn words into actions to help reduce drop out rate

On Wednesday I posted my first summary of the National Dropout Prevention Conference in this article.

Here are some quotes from people I heard.

"Shame of American Education is the drop-out problem." Dr. Daniel Domenech

"1600 high schools in America responsible for majority of droputs in US." (see this info on Locating the Dropout Crisis)Dr. Daniel Domenech

"You don't have a right to leave this earth till you give something back." Dr. Debbie Silver

"African American children comprise 17% of the youth population, but 34% of all school based suspensions and 45% of all juvenile arrests."

You can find more statistics like this on many different web sites. However, where can you find maps and marketing strategies intended to increase the number of people looking at this information and increase the distribution of operating dollars to schools and non-school mentoring and learning centers in all of the high dropout school areas?

I've been inviting people in Chicago to look at this information and connect via the May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference for over 15 years. I've attended events hosted by others and encouraged them to connect their conferences and forums with me and each other via the Internet.

For the most part this has been like spreading seed on rocks and deserts. Yet, after just meeting for a brief while on Skype, David Prince helped me set up this "mentoring kids to careers" discussion on the Debategraph portal that he hosts in the UK. David posted this introduction to the Tutor/Mentor Institute blog article earlier this week.



Anyone in the world, or in Chicago, can use this forum to innovate ways to increase the number of people and donors who support dropout area schools and non-school learning centers. Anyone can log in and add new information to this map, or create their own set of maps showing their own ideas of how to end the dropout crisis.

When I say "anyone" I mean that billionaires, sports stars, rock musicians, high school clubs, politicians, etc. can use this. If some do, perhaps they will begin to apply the ideas using their own time and talent to help more kids to careers.

Interested? Come to the November 4 Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conference in Chicago. Join us on-line in the Debategraph forum, or in the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.