Early Warning System
Shelly DeBerry
Student Success Advocate Coordinator
Office of Optional Education Pathways
Agenda
I.
Social and Economic Impacts
II.
ABC Framework and Other Indicators
III.
Implementation of an Early Warning System
IV. Early Warning Tool on WOW
V.
Interventions
VI. Resources
VII. Role of the School Counselor
Table Discussion
What do you Know?
about high school dropouts
State of the Nation

Every 9 seconds a student dropouts out of school (7,000 dropout each day)

The death rate of high school dropouts is 2.5 times higher that graduates

Each class of dropouts cost $55 million in healthcare

Dropouts make up close to half of the households on welfare

Every year a class of dropouts will cost $200 billion during their lifetime in lost earnings
and unrealized tax revenue.

12 million students who will drop out over the next decade will cost the nation $3
trillion dollars
Alliance for Excellent Education
Cont.’
 8 out of 10 dropouts end up in prison
(We spend $40 billion every year on prisoners incarcerated)
 US graduation rate is 18th in the nation.
(Forty years ago, we were number one)
 Students with emotional, behavioral or learning difficulties are much
more likely to dropout of school.
 74% of dropouts report they would have stayed in school if they could
do it over.
West Virginia

1630 inmates in prison in 1991 and 6,870 inmates in prison in 2011

Highest rate of prescription drug use in the US

The second highest in drug overdoes death rate

Only state to increase the teen pregnancy rate 17 percent from 2007 to 2009

Dropouts from the class of 2008 will cost WV almost $1.7 billion in lost wages over
their lifetimes.

9-12% of jobs are available to high school dropouts.

1 in 4 ninth grade students do not graduate from high school
State of the State
Year
Graduation Rate
2008-09
70.8%
2009-10
75.5%
2010-11
76.5%
2011-12
77.9%
Year
Dropout Rate
2008-09
2.8% (3,527)
2009-10
2.7% (3,353)
2010-11
2.2% (2,729)
2011-12
1.7% (2114)
West Virginia Department of Education 2012
WV Benefits
The Best Economic Stimulus Package
What if all of the 2010 dropouts received a high school diploma:
Earnings
• $21 million in increased earnings
Spending
• $16 million in increased spending
Home Sales
New Jobs
• $34 million in increased home sales
• $3 million in increased auto sales
• 150 new jobs
Gross State Product • $24 million in increased gross state product
State Tax Revenue
• $1.7 million in increased state tax revenue
Table Discussion
What do you Know?
about what dropouts say
What Dropouts Say
According to Civic Enterprises 2006
Report Dropouts said the following could
have helped them:
 Improve access to support for struggling students.
 75% wanted smaller classes.
 70% believed that more tutoring, summer school and extra
time with teachers would have improved their chances of
graduating.
 70% of dropouts said that “increasing supervision in school”
and 62% said “more classroom discipline” was necessary to
ensure success.
 57% said that their schools “did not do enough” to help student’s
feel safe from violence.
 Promote close relationships with adults.
 Only 41% of dropouts reported having someone to talk to
about personal problems.
 62% said they would like to see schools do more to help
students with problems outside of class.
 Only 47% said the schools even bothered to contact them after
they dropped out.
Early Warning Systems
Process not an event
Use readily available school data
Identify at risk students
Purpose is early intervention!
ABC Framework
Attendance
Behavior
Course Performance
Attendance
 Relates to disengagement
 WE have create a culture of attendance
 This is a life and job readiness skill
 Many contributing factors : substance abuse, family
problems, depression, pregnancy, boredom, social anxiety
Behavior
 Can be a barrier to learning
 All behavior is purposeful (family problems, substance abuse, learning
problems, boredom, child abuse etc.)
 The more time out of class the more they fall behind
Course Performance
 Progression of learning
 On track or Off track to graduate
 Some enter 9th grade Off Track or fall Off Track in 9th grade
(The Bulge)
 Acquiring basic skills to build upon (3rd grade reading on level)
RETENTIONS
Retention of one grade
increases dropout risk by 40%
Retention of two grades
increases dropout risk by 90%
Table Discussion
What do you Know?
about other student alerts
Other Indicators or Student Alerts
• Low socioeconomic status
• Reading at grade level
• Individual Background Characteristics
• Has a learning disability or emotional disturbance
• Early Adult Responsibilities
• High number of work hours
• Parenthood
• No extracurricular participation
• High family mobility
• Low education level of parents
• Not living with both natural parents
• Family disruption
• Low educational expectations
• Sibling has dropped out
Balfanz Report
Identifies At-Risk Students in West Virginia
Indicator
6th Grade
9th Grade
Attendance
90% or below
85% or below
Behavior
1 or more suspensions
2 or more suspensions
Course Performance
1 or more semester
failures
2 or more semester
failures
English or Math
English or Math
EWS Development
Phase I
6th – 12th Grade alerts
Phase II
Prek-5th grade (August 1)
Phase III
Intervention Draw Down Tabs
Phase IV
Recording Interventions
Implementation of an Early Warning
Intervention and Monitoring System
Establish roles
and
responsibilities
Evaluate and
refine the EWS
process
Monitor
Student
progress
Adapted from the National High School Center
Review and
Interpret the
EWS data
Assign and
provide
interventions
Step 1 : Establish Roles and Responsibilities
 Determine stakeholders
 Determine protocols for handling the data
 Determine data entry regulations
 Determine professional development needs
Step 2: Review & Interpret the EWS Data
 Teams members need to understand the use of the indicators.
 Reports should be accessible and used to make decisions about
students’ needs.
 Team members need to be willing to gather more/outside data
when available.
 Team members need to verify data when appropriate to do so.
 Look for school level patterns and student level patterns.
Step 3: Assign and provide interventions
 Dig deeper into the “Reason Why?”, before assigning
interventions.
 Individualize the interventions to address specific
issues. (Avoid delivering same for everyone).
 Recommend a tier approached to assigning
interventions based on individual needs
Model for Delivery of Student Supports
Individual Intensive
Multiple Services from
multiple agencies
Targeted
Interventions
Specific interventions that
are usually short term
Prevention Services
Programs/Activities
Policies, Bully Prevention Programs,
Developmental Guidance, Career Counseling
Services
Step 4: Monitor Student Progress
 Determine who will be monitoring student progress
 Determine how often student progress will be
monitored
 Add new interventions as needed
 Sometimes multiple interventions are necessary
Step 5: Evaluate & Adjust EWS Process
 Create a process to continually evaluate the student
outcomes
 Evaluation should occur during and at the end of the
school year
 Evaluate student needs and school needs
 Seek student and parent feedback
Early Warning System Tool
On W.O.W.
Example Login screen for WOW
WOW menu
We will add new tab for early warning system
Defaults for Early Warning System
A – Attendance
B – Behavior
C – Course Performance
• Attendance – 10% days absent. This includes excused and non-excused
absences.
– The option will be given to break the absences down by non-excused and
excused
– The option will be given to change the percentage to number of days
absent
• Behavior – 2 or more suspensions that are level 2 or above
– The option will be given to designate the level of the behavior and
number of occurrences
• Course Performance – Failure of Math and English in a marking period
– The option will be given to also look at Science and Social Studies
Early Warning System drop down menus
Early Warning System drop down menus cont
Early Warning System drop down menus cont.
Early Warning System drop down menus cont.
Early Warning System drop down menus cont.
Early Warning System color coding:
Red = student has all 3 ABCs (attendance, behavior, and course code failures)
Orange – Student has 2 ABC’s
Yellow – Student has 1 ABC
Attendance Report
Attendance Report cont.
This shows sort options
Behavior Report
Behavior Report
Sort options
Course Report
Course Report cont.
Sort options
Resources Available on the Site
• Video tutorial
• 4 year Cohort Document
• How to use the EWS
• Todays power point
• Interventions with Students At Risk
Table Discussion
What do you Know?
about effective interventions
Interventions
Attendance
Behavior
Course Failure
Have attendance team
investigate and
determine causes
Peer mediation
program
Assign Tutoring before,
during and/or after
school
Assign an adult mentor
Carry behavior
checklist from class to
class or do a weekly
behavior report
Assign to smaller class
size/change
levels/change teacher
Require a quick daily
check by adult
Develop a behavior
contract
Create “extra help”
courses in place of
electives or offer block
courses for additional
help
Create individual
motivational/incentive
plan for attendance
Refer for individual or
group counseling
Credit recover
opportunities
15 Effective Strategies
School and Community Perspective
Systemic Renewal
School-Community Collaboration
Safe Learning Environments
National Dropout Prevention Center
Early Interventions
Family Engagement
Early Childhood Education
Early Literacy Development
Basic Core Strategies
Mentoring/Tutoring
Service-Learning
Alternative Schooling
After-School Opportunities
Making the Most of Instruction
Professional Development
Active Learning
Educational Technology
Individualized Instruction
Career and Technology Education (CTE)
RESOURCES
Rise Up West Virginia
http://wvde.state.wv.us/riseup/
Bully Prevention
http://wvde.state.wv.us/it-does-matter/
Common Ground
http://wvde.state.wv.us/common-ground/
LINKS
http://wvde.state.wv.us/counselors/links/about.html
School Counseling
http://wvde.state.wv.us/counselors/
Dropout Innovation Zones
http://wvde.state.wv.us/innovationzones/
Comprehensive Model for Student Supports
Type of Intervention
Portion of Students
Who Will Benefit
Resources Needed
School – Wide
Preventative
65-75%
Reorganize existing resources
Community Volunteers
Students
Faculty
Parents
Targeted
15-25%
Additional resources needed
Expertise
Staff Volunteers/Additional
duties assigned
Community Volunteers
Intensive
5-10%
Partners in Education
Referrals to child welfare
systems, DHHR, social services,
mental health & juvenile justice
Plan for Supports/Interventions
Type of
Intervention
School-wide
Preventative
Targeted
Interventions
Intensive
Interventions
Currently in Place
Data shows
student needs
Plan to Put in
Place
Roles &
Responsibilities
Role of the School Counselor
School counselor are experts to assist in the following
components of utilizing an early warning system:
Identify students early
Student Assistance Team Referrals
Secure Targeted and Intensive interventions
Monitor student progress
Evaluate effectiveness
Contact Information
Marshall Patton, Ex. Director, Office of Information Systems
mlpatton@access.k12.wv.us
Jim Gilbert, WVEIS Coordinator, Office of Information Systems
jgilbert@access.k12.wv.us
Sara Harper, Data Coordinator, Office of Information Systems
sara.harper@access.k12.wv.us
Shelly DeBerry, Coordinator, Office of Optional Educational Pathways
sdeberry@access.k12.wv.us