High school dropouts concentrated in 35 cities

The nation’s high school dropout problem is most desperate in between 200 to 300 schools in the 35 largest cities in the U.S. The cities are Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, San Antonio, Baltimore, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, Austin, Columbus, Milwaukee, Denver, Kansas City, Nashville, Memphis, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, Washington D.C., Long Beach, Phoenix, San Jose, Seattle, Tucson, Virginia Beach, New Orleans, Jacksonville, and Charlotte. “As states impose new standards and high-stakes tests for graduation and promotion, some predict that our dropout problem will only get more dire,” says Robert Schwartz, president of Achieve Inc. “Our challenge is to raise academic standards for all students, while simultaneously ensuring that at-risk students receive the supports they need to meet the standards and stay in school.”