West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
Early Warning Indicator & Interventions
8th to 9th Grade
Activity Description: The school counselor in collaboration with the school
leadership team and the feeder middle schools identifies 8th grade students at-risk
of dropping out of school and develops targeted and/or intensive interventions,
supports and transition activities for those students that include but are not limited
to: small group counseling, tutoring services, mentors, individualized education
plans, individual counseling, behavior contracts, parent/guardian contact and
education, and progress monitoring.
School Counselor Performance Standard: Standards are currently in draft form and
will be added at a later date.
Function:
Indicator (s):
GOAL: To identify and assist all at-risk incoming freshmen students and provide
appropriate interventions and supports for successful and on time completion of
the freshmen year in high school.
Rationale:
There are effective, research-based steps school systems can readily take to identify likely high
school dropouts. The first step toward an effective dropout prevention strategy involves tracking
and analyzing basic data on which students are showing early warning signs of dropping out. Most
future dropouts may be identified as early as sixth grade. One key study indicated that more than
half of sixth graders with the following three criteria eventually left school: attend school less than
80 percent of the time; receive a low final grade from their teachers in behavior; and fail either
math or English (Balfanz & Herzog, 2005). Eighth-graders who miss five weeks of school or fail
math or English have at least a 75 percent chance of dropping out of high school. (Neild & Balfanz,
2006). Retention in middle grades, and even elementary school, is associated with dropout. For
example, one study on dropout determined that 64 percent of students who had repeated a grade
Developed by: Barbara Ashcraft, West Virginia Department of Education
Shelly DeBerry, West Virginia Department of Education
West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
in elementary school and 63 percent of those who had been held back in middle school left school
without a diploma (Alexander et. al., 1997). Research has shown that students with prior behavior
problems are most likely to fail during transition years and eventually drop out. There appears to
be a window of opportunity in reaching middle-grades students who show signs of poor behavior
but who are not yet failing academic subjects. By the time future dropouts get to high school, poor
behavior and course failure tend to converge among many students who eventually leave school
(Herzog and Balfanz, 2005). Most future dropouts can also be identified in the first year of high
school when a sense of urgency around reaching out and supporting these students is critical
before they disappear from school. These key indicators can assist decision makers in targeting
dropout prevention resources to the students most at risk of imminently leaving school.
Materials:
Counselor Resource #1
Counselor Resource #2
Counselor Resource #3
Counselor Resource #4
Counselor Resource #5
Counselor Resource #6
Counselor Resource #7
Students Identified At-Risk Forms
NHSC Excel Spreadsheet Tool to Identify Students At-Risk
NHSC Tool 2.v Technical Manual
Early Warning System Implementation Guide
Sample Behavior Contracts
Sample Parent Letters
Counseling permission forms
Data Portal 21
Free Tutoring programs available online
E-Mentoring Programs
Procedures:
1.) School counselor collaborates with the school leadership team to establish a data system that
tracks individual student attendance, grades, promotion status, and behavior
marks/referrals indicators in order to identify students at risk of potentially dropping
out of school using these indicators:
a) attendance below 85%
b) 2 or more suspensions
c) failing English
d) failing Math
e) retained a grade
Developed by: Barbara Ashcraft, West Virginia Department of Education
Shelly DeBerry, West Virginia Department of Education
West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
2.) School counselor will receive (prior to end of 8th grade school year) a list of identified at risk 8th
graders from each of the feeder schools and that list should include the following information:
a. Indicator(s) that flags the student as at-risk
b. Interventions established in middle school
c. Progress that occurred with each intervention
d. Parental involvement or attempts to engage parents
e. Community organizations involved with the student
f. Social service agencies involved with the student
g. Juvenile Justice involvement with student
3.) School counselor meets with administration in reference to above identified at risk incoming
freshmen before school ends. This team determines if there are any scheduling adjustments
that can be made at this time that would serve as a support for each of these students. (eg.
Changing teachers, changing time of day for a certain subjects, changing electives etc)
4.) School counselor meets at the beginning of the school year with each of the teachers assigned
to the students on the at-risk list and has a discussion about how the teacher can provide
supports to these students in the classroom.
5.) School counselor sends a letter to each of the identified student’s parents to invite them to
come in and meet and discuss their concerns and how they can help their student be successful
this year. During that meeting the counselor gives the parents information about tutoring
available, how to access grades on-line if available, and how to stay in regular contact with their
child’s teachers. Alternative would be to provide a special freshmen orientation for these
identified students and their parents and have a variety of community organizations and
academic resources available that evening.
6.) School counselor secures that interventions that were in place in the 8th grade continue to be
in place in the beginning of the freshmen year. If they are not in place, then the school
counselor refers that student to the Student Assistance Team to determine appropriate and
necessary interventions.
7.) After the first marking period, the school counselor meets with the parents of any identified atrisk freshmen students and refers these students to the Student Assistance Team.
8.) School counselor refers any identified at risk freshman student to the Student Assistance Team
after missing 5 or more unexcused absences.
9.) School counselor refers any identified at risk freshman student to the Student Assistance Team
after two discipline referrals or one school suspension.
10.) The Student Assistance Team will determine appropriate and necessary interventions to
include but not limited to:
Developed by: Barbara Ashcraft, West Virginia Department of Education
Shelly DeBerry, West Virginia Department of Education
West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
n.
o.
p.
q.
r.
s.
t.
u.
Flexible scheduling
Change of teacher(s)
Classroom accommodations – eg. preferential seating
Assign an adult mentor
Assign a peer tutor
Assign a teacher tutor
Assign a community tutor
Provide an on-line tutoring program
Provide individual or small group supports in test-taking skills, study skills, or
targeted subject areas such as English Language Arts or Math.
Create an Individualized Graduation Plan to include career goals and postsecondary education plans.
Credit recovery opportunities before, during and after school that can
include on-line courses.
Make referrals to community based organizations for social service needs or
more intensive counseling needs.
Assist student in becoming involved in extra-curricular activities at the
school.
Develop behavior contract and method for regular monitoring of the
contract.
11.) School counselor sets up small group counseling for groups of students according to their
indicators. (Example, identify those with the attendance indicator and put in a small group
together etc). Also, may set up topic groups such as: anger management, grief, alcohol/drug
abuse etc. See protocol on small group counseling.
12.) School counselor will set up a monitoring system to track and report student progress after
alternatives have been put in place. This includes regular contact with parents and regular
reporting to the Student Assistance Team or the School Leadership Team.
Limitations: School counselors need to work with the Student Assistance Team, Administration in
charge of attendance and discipline, the county Attendance Worker/Director and not be given the
sole responsibility of identifying and providing interventions for at-risk students.
Additional Resources:
IES Practice Guide, What Works Clearinghouse, Dropout Prevention
America’s Promise, Grad Nation Community Guidebook
Developed by: Barbara Ashcraft, West Virginia Department of Education
Shelly DeBerry, West Virginia Department of Education
West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
America’s Promise, Grad Nation Tools
Approaches to Dropout Prevention: Heeding Early Warning Signs With Appropriate
Interventions, National High School Center
Web Links:
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/dp_pg_090308.pdf
http://www.americaspromise.org/Our-Work/Dropout-Prevention/Grad-Nation-Guidebook.aspx\
http://www.americaspromise.org
http://wvde.state.wv.us/counselors/documents/NHSC_ApproachestoDropoutPrevention.pdf
References:
Balfanz, R., & Herzog, L. (2005, March). Keeping middle grades students on-track to graduation: Initial
analysis and implications. Presentation at the second Regional Middle Grades Symposium, Philadelphia.
Heppen, Jessica B. and Therriault, Susan Bowles, “Developing Early Warning Systems to Identify Potential
High School Dropouts”, American Institutes for Research®
Neild, R., & Balfanz, R. (2006). An extreme degree of difficulty: The educational demographics of the urban
neighborhood high school. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 11(2), 123–141.
Alexander, K., Entwisle, D., & Kabbani, N. (1999). Grade retention, social promotion, and “third way”
alternatives. Paper presented at the National Invitational Conference for Early Childhood Learning: Programs
for a New Age, Alexandria, Virginia.
Evaluation:
1.) List of identified 8th grade at risk students
2.) Documented parent contacts
3.) Agendas and minutes from Student Assistance Teams
Developed by: Barbara Ashcraft, West Virginia Department of Education
Shelly DeBerry, West Virginia Department of Education