In previous posts, I’ve began with the assertion that in many cases, the likelihood that a student would graduate from high school could be predicted as early as kindergarten. Because early warning systems were initially designed to improve high school dropout rates, most of the research has centered around students in eighth grade and up. Another … Continue reading Early Warning Systems in Early Education
This excerpt comes from our latest white paper written in conjunction with Gina Thompson, Superintendent of Yuma Union High School District. Read the entire article here. Based on raw numbers, Yuma Union High School District (YUHSD) would appear to be a school district poised to fail. Poverty is endemic to the region; 73% of YUHSD … Continue reading How a Focus on Access & Equity Is Making a Difference in Yuma
PBIS, RTI, and MTSS can be confusing, especially since those terms are sometimes used interchangeably. There’s a lot of overlap, but they are different. Use this article as a cheat sheet (or refresher) so you can feel comfortable discussing them with parents, colleagues, and other stakeholders. Let’s start chronologically. What does PBIS stand for? PBIS … Continue reading MTSS vs RTI vs PBIS – What’s the difference?
Presented by Kate Pechacek – Transcription Below Introduction Welcome to the “Illuminate Whiteboard Series.” I’m Kate Pechacek. I’m a customer success manager for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. I’m here today to talk to you a little bit about choosing the right intervention for your students. We’ve all heard the term “targeted intervention.” Targeted means … Continue reading Choosing the Right Student Intervention
Denver Public Schools (DPS) serves students in one of the top 25 largest cities in the United States. DPS is one of the fastest- growing urban school districts in the nation and leads all large districts in Colorado in student academic growth. The diversity of the district is reflected in its student enrollment, which is … Continue reading How Denver Public Schools Overcame District Data Woes
As we’ve been emphasizing in our previous posts, data alone is never enough. Data is just a tool that educators can use to identify and remove possible barriers to student success. And because many inequities are built into our educational system, we need people at all organizational levels who know how to collect, analyze, and … Continue reading The People Behind Early Warning Indicators
With the release of a new survey published recently by the National Association of Elementary School Principals, school principals in K-8 schools say their top concern is the rising numbers of students with emotional problems and mental health needs. To put it in perspective, this survey has been conducted since 1928; in the 2008 report—just … Continue reading Social-Emotional Learning vs. Mental Health: What’s the Difference?
Last month, in recognition that September was Attendance Awareness Month, Scott Johnston-Roark, Romulus Community Schools’ District Data Coach, shared his “Attendance Update Parent Report” with the Illuminate BI Tool community. The report is beautiful in its simplicity. Most importantly, the report represents a model for (A) getting the right data to the right people at the right … Continue reading BI Tool: The “Quick Lookup” Report
Serving the entire city of Yuma, Arizona—a town near the Mexican border with a population just under 100,000—the Yuma Union High School District (YUHSD) consists of five comprehensive high schools and one alternative high school. The majority of students in the district are economically disadvantaged and Hispanic. Seventy-three percent of YUHSD students are eligible for … Continue reading How a Unique Border-Town District Defies Demographics
Identifying students in need of extra support is just one of the benefits of using an early warning system (EWS). As High School Graduation and College Readiness Indicator Systems: What We Know, What We Need to Know makes clear, an EWS should also “systematically focus, guide, and assess school improvement” and “hold schools accountable for … Continue reading The Importance of Setting-Level Data in an Early Warning System