Dropout Prevention: What you can do today to help kids!

1. Mitch Fowler School Data Consultant Calhoun ISD fowlerm@calhounisd.org Dropout Prevention: What you can do today to help kids!

2. The Research Says… Sixth graders with poor attendance (less than 80 percent), a failing mark for classroom behavior, a failing grade in math or a failing grade in English had only a 10 percent chance of graduating within four years of entering high school and only a 20 percent chance of graduating a year late (Balfanz & Herzog, 2005).

3. Building Early Warning Systems • According to Craig Jerald, an early warning system should: • identify risk factors by individual student • aggregate risk factors by school and type of school • identify rates of decline in academic achievement and engagement • identify school-level outcomes (on track by grade, off-track recovery rates, and graduation rates), and system wide analysis of student characteristics, risk factors, outcomes, and impact of interventions. Identifying Potential Dropouts: Key Lessons for Building an Early Warning Data System: A Dual Agenda of High Standards and High Graduation Rates by Craig Jerald.

4. The CISD’s Early Warning System - DataDirector • Blending of: • Research • Local Preferences • Existing DataDirector Assessments • Newly Created DataDirector Assessments • Custom Reporting in DataDirector • Augmented Reporting Outside of DataDirector • Newly Generated Demographics

5. Collecting Obscure Data

6. Collecting Obscure Data

7. Aggregating the Data

8. Aggregating the Data

9. Identifying / Ranking At-Risk Students

10. Sharing Findings With Stakeholders

11. Acting on the Data - Rigor • Align performance standards to college and career readiness • Focus on transitions from high school to college and careers as well as on transitions into high school Schools that offer fewer math courses below Algebra I reduced the odds of dropping out by 28 percent, and those that offer calculus reduced the odds by 55 percent (Lee & Burkham, 2000).

12. Acting on the Data – Effective Teachers Effective teachers need to be working closely with those most at-risk for dropping out…

13. Acting on the Data – Extended Learning Time Check & Connect : • Provides trained monitors to small groups of students. • Closely follow tardiness, absenteeism, behavioral referrals, and academic performance and meet with individual students each week. Intensive interventions such as Check and Connect can cut dropouts by as much as half, but they are even more effective when implemented with school wide reforms (Jerald, 2007).

14. Identifying Early Warning Signs of Dropouts – Flipped PD (6 hrs) Individual Work Face to face Creating Early Warning Signs Custom Reports Using the Early Warning Signs Tool Creating an Early Warning Signs Demographic in DD Creating and Sharing an Early Warning Signs Report Strategic Planning • Introduction to Research • Collecting and Identifying Data Points • Identifying and Building Assessments

15. Monitoring Students with Early Warning Signs – Flipped PD (6 hrs) Individual Work Face to face Share Intervention Approaches Share Intervention Assessments Develop Custom Reports to Fit Intervention Needs • Building Summary Assessments Video • Research Review on Interventions • Build Summary Assessments