This document is part of a series of guides designed to help school district leaders address one of the toughest challenges in American education: dropout rates of 30 percent nationwide, 50 percent in many big cities, and 60 percent or more in the lowest-performing schools. It includes tools for data analysts to drill down into the data and use their findings to arm school leaders with actionable information. Urban districts are using data--or should be--to address the challenge of students dropping out of school. Numbers are crunched in databases with hundreds of thousands of student records to know the size of the dropout problem and the track record of schools in stemming the loss. Data tools are employed to calculate the cost of various options, from closing schools and opening new ones to providing interventions such as evening school. Performance data are analyzed to evaluate the success of the district's portfolio of schools. In sum, data provide the foundation for the myriad district decisions involved in matching student needs to school and program choices. It is quite likely that leaders in your district are intent on using data to inform some hard choices ahead--but they need your help. The analyses and charts in this guide illustrate the work you need to do to answer the questions they encountered in the "This School Works for Me: Creating Choices to Boost Achievement. A Guide for America's School Leaders" (ED515670) and "This School Works for Me: Creating Choices to Boost Achievement. An Implementation Guide for School District Administrators" (ED515665) guides.