ST. LOUIS • Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has mentored kids for nearly a century with an army of volunteers who help with homework or just hang out and maintain a supportive relationship.

Five years ago, the St. Louis-based Eastern Missouri chapter, one of 379 nationwide, started trying something different.

The group had emotional stories about helping children in need, but it didn't know if all the effort was working, or if the nonprofit organization was just running on a treadmill. So it started gathering information about kids' school attendance, discipline and grades.

The new program is meant to track the kids, like a stockbroker tracks the performance of Microsoft.

Called the "ABC Education Initiative," it was first tested in Cape Girardeau and now counts 400 children in St. Louis public schools. The organization expects to double the size of the program by 2012 and use it as a national prototype.

The program looks for historical patterns in behavior and red flags, such as if a child falls to an "F" in math and reading, or gets several disciplinary actions and tardies. The information is collected by Big Brothers Big Sisters and passed on to the mentor if needed. Parents must sign a privacy waiver for a child to be included in the program.

Wells Fargo Advisors, a St. Louis-based brokerage, got involved last year and gave the program a boost with the volunteer help of its researchers. Initially rooted in spreadsheets and paper, the Wells Fargo team designed a test program to measure the information electronically, complete with color codes and 10,000 sorting measures.

The software, which is still being refined, quickly finds anything from students with a grade-point average below 2.0 to kids with more than 10 class absences. It can also create individual student profiles. The electronic program is supposed to be fully developed by next year.

Karen Mathis, president of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, said she hoped the tracking system will be replicated nationally, through other agencies "that have the resources, political will and the leadership."

St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said after a demonstration last week at Wells Fargo that he is "extremely excited" about the opportunities the technology offers. He hopes it will eventually be available for all students, not just those in Big Brothers Big Sisters.

"We have our own version, but this is so much more advanced," Adams said.

"Littles" in the program last spring also started seeing a familiar face roam the hallways of five St. Louis schools, where Big Brothers Big Sisters placed a "director of impact." The directors have a school office, sit in at morning assemblies and visit with teachers and kids.

They and other representatives manage the individual performance information entered into the database.

Tawanda Jeffries, whose daughter Kieara, 13, is being tracked at Langston Middle School, said Kieara has been able to maintain good behavior and grades at a time when kids often slip.

Kieara had seven tardies in the 2008-2009 school year and three last year, according to her database profile. This year, she has had only one tardy, has maintained a "B" average in math and reading and doesn't have any disciplinary issues.

Her mother, a single mother of three kids and a nurse who often has to work late, used the word "awesome" several times when she described the program and Kieara's Big Sister, a law student at Washington University. "I know a lot of kids around here don't have that opportunity," said Tawanda Jeffries.

The program is one reason Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri swept all the annual awards this summer by its national headquarters from Philadelphia, including agency of the year, board of the year and staff of the year. Other factors were increased revenue, high retention of volunteers and growth in the number of children served.

The local chapter, which serves St. Louis and five surrounding counties, matched 2,742 kids in 2009, ages 5 to 17, with mentors. Special attention is given to children attending under-performing schools and whose parents are incarcerated. About 1,750 kids are on a waiting list, most of them boys.

Becky James-Hatter started as president of the eastern Missouri group in 1994, when it had just 350 volunteers. The main office today is in the old Woolworth building at 501 North Grand Boulevard. The organization spent $4 million to help renovate the building two years ago.

The word "Who?" is painted in large orange letters on James-Hatter's office wall. She said if she gets the "who" right, she doesn't have to worry about the "what."

Revenue during the heat of the recession jumped from $3.7 million in 2008 to $8.5 million in 2009; $3 million of it came anonymously from a private foundation that has high hopes about the potential of the ABC program, James-Hatter said.

In an agency of mentors, she, too, has her own big brother in John Bachmann, senior partner at Edward Jones. Several copies of a book he wrote about leadership are stacked near her desk. They visit every three months or so about strategy, a routine that started a year before the seeds for the new program were planted.

Bachmann said they talk "a lot about the difference between activities and results."