Nutter is scheduled to make what his aides say is a "major education speech" Thursday night at South Philadelphia High School.
In it, Nutter will propose - as he has previously - that local universities provide 1,000 scholarships each year to graduating city high school students.
He will also announce the creation of a program called CollegeReady Philadelphia, which will link high school students to college prep programs.
When he took office in January, Nutter pledged to halve the 45 percent dropout rate within seven years, and to double the number of adults with bachelor's degrees.
Only 18 percent of city residents are college graduates.
