For more than 100 years, the US public education system has remained faithful to its hierarchical power structure, constructing knowledge at the top through state and federal efforts, then disseminating it down to districts, schools, administrators, teachers, and finally students. This paper argues that the assumed naturalism of this hierarchical power structure has resulted in a system that consistently fails to provide adequate services to urban, poor students of color as evidenced by the high rates of school dropout among this population. The contemporary issue of dropout in urban public schools is first located in the historiography of the Progressive Era. Next, a critically reflexive case study of the author's experience working as a dropout prevention counselor for a large urban school district is presented. Lastly, the issue of dropout is re-located through affective contextualization, articulating what could emerge with a shift from hierarchical power structures to rhizomatic possibilities.

education, affect, dropout, urban education