MTSS AND EWS
MOVING FROM REACTION TO PREVENTION:
EARLY INTERVENTION FOR DISENGAGED
STUDENTS
Melissa Long
Janet Stephenson
Based on the work of Dr. Rebecca Sarlo - USF
Today’s Objectives
• Discuss the compelling why of Early Warning Systems
• Identify early indicators of dropouts
• Describe the development and utility of Early Warning Systems
• Explore the multi-faceted nature of engagement
• Discuss data collection methods appropriate for identifying students who
are disengaged academically, behaviorally, socially, or psychologically
• Discuss effective dropout prevention strategies for each type of
disengagement (MTSS)
• Discuss progress monitoring of students at-risk for dropout
…and more
• What will it take to implement effective Early
Warning Systems in Brevard that impact
student achievement?
• What are our major barriers and how will we
overcome them?
…and lets SIMPLIFY it even more!
1. Find ‘em! What is the problem?
 EWS – Who? How BIG?
2. Figure out WHY it is occurring
 Patterns, variables, what can we control?
3. Do something with them - MTSS
 Get students more engaged
 Proactive, preventative
4. Progress Monitor to see if it worked
The Goal of Having a Multi-Tiered System of
Support in Middle and High Schools is to…
A. Identify kids who are at risk.
B. Make sure students are on track for graduation
– college and career ready.
C. Use data to find out our school’s weaknesses
and how to best use resources.
D. Help students who struggle in math and reading.
E. Drop out prevention
F. All of the above
Stop and Jot
• What are indicators we know of potential
drop outs?
• How do drop outs affect society?
The WHY of our Work:
A National Crisis
• Nearly 30% of all high school students leave high school
before graduating
• Approximately 50% of African American and Latino
American Students do not graduate
• High School Dropouts
– Have shorter life spans
– Are more likely to be convicted of a crime
– Cannot access 90% of the current fastest growing career
fields
– Cost the nation more than $325 billion in lost wages, taxes,
and productivity
High School Dilemma
• Deadly combination
– Poor Skill Development
– Limited or No Productivity (work completed,
practice)
• How do you remediate gaps AND provide
students with access to content
simultaneously?
• How do you sustain student engagement
when skill gaps are significant?
What We Know
• Middle- and High-School teams “inherit” the strengths and
weaknesses (and Gaps) students bring to the level
• 64% of students repeating a grade in elementary school
eventually drop out
• 63% of students held back in middle school eventually drop out
• Successful high school completion begins in kindergarten
• Most successful high school “intervention” is to ensure that
students enter with as much strength as possible
What We Know
• Vertical Programming—articulation K-12- is the most effective
way of ensuring that students are prepared for high school
• Middle- and High-School staff should know student needs at
least 12-16 month ahead of time.
• The best high-school “screening” tool is the compilation of
data in K-8
• An agreed upon “method” of vertical communication of
student data/needs—that leads to vertical programming– is
critical
What We Know
We know DROPPING OUT
is a process, not an event.
Dropout Prevention cannot be Sole
Responsibility of High Schools
The Forgotten Middle
• “Making sure that all eighth-grade
students have attained the
knowledge and skills that put them
on target to becoming ready for
college and career is the single most
important step that can be taken to
improve their college and career
readiness.”
•
The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students are on
Target for College and Career Readiness before High
School (ACT, 2008)
High School Transition
• 9th grade is a “make or break” year
• More students fail 9th grade than any other grade level
• A disproportionate number of held-back 9th graders
subsequently drop out of school
• Powerful early signs of dropout are evident during the first
semester and year of high school
• Early intervention has proven effective for maintaining
students in school
Table Talk
• How does our district currently approach
dropout prevention?
• When are dropout prevention services
initiated? For Whom?
• How effective are the dropout prevention
services?
• What could be done to improve their
effectiveness?
1. FINDING THEM
How BIG is our problem?
Who?
…and later…any patterns?
What are Early Warning Systems?
Systems which:
• Utilize routinely available data housed at the school
• Help identify students at-risk for dropping out utilizing highly
predictive data
• Allow districts and schools to target interventions that support
off-track or at-risk students while they are still in school
• Allow districts and schools to uncover patterns and root causes
that contribute to disproportionate drop-out rates at a
particular school or within a particular group of students
Developing a District-Wide
Early Warning System – Why?
• The best predictor of future failure is current failure and
disengagement
• Assessing risk across multiple variables allows teams to provide
early intervention and prevent disengagement from school and
course failures
– At-risk and off-track students are identified through analyzing
a combination of engagement and academic data.
• Many students experience course failures as a result of
disengagement (e.g., excessive absenteeism, lack of productivity,
inattention)
• Systematically assessing student engagement allows schools to
identify students in need of support before they have failed
courses or acquired skill deficits related to missed instruction
EWS – 2 Key Questions
1. What are our problems? (How many
students off track? Who?)
2. Why are they occurring?
EWS Indicators
• Academic
–
–
–
–
–
Course Grades
GPA
Credits Earned
Retention
Good Cause Exempt.
• Engagement
–
–
–
–
Attendance
Suspension
Tardies
Referral
Early Warning Systems
• Identify all students who miss more than 20% of the available
instructional time
and/or
• Identify students through engagement scales or behavior
indicators
• Identify all students who fail their math course
• Identify all students who fail their English course
• Flag students who display both engagement and academic
failure as high risk
Building Your Early Warning System
• The best predictor of future failure is current
failure and disengagement.
• By the time students enter secondary schools
they typically have years of data which
indicates whether or not the student is at-risk
for school failure and high school dropout.
• Assessing risk across multiple variables allows
teams to provide early intervention and
prevent disengagement from school and
course failures.
Extreme Off Track
2-3 Years Behind
No chance for graduation in a
traditional school setting
Disengagement
Risk Factors:
1. Disengagement
•20% absenteeism
2. Behind in Credits
•Particularly Core
Course Failures
3. GPA less than 2.0
4. Failed FCAT
High Off Track
3 or more risk factors
Off Track
2 of 4 risk factors indicated
Students entering with 20%
absenteeism and/or 2 or more
F’s in 8th Grade
At Risk for Off Track
1 of 4 risk factors indicated
On Track
No risk factors indicated
Hendry County Schools
At-Risk Eighth Graders
• Those who attend school less than 80% of
the time (78% became drop outs)
• Those who receive a failing grade in math
and/or English (77% became drop outs)
• Did not have strong predictive power:
– Gender, race, age, test scores
Attendance: The Canary in the Coal Mine
School
More than 9 Absences – students not in
school 80% of the time
Central
9
Clearlake
4
Cocoa Beach Jr/Sr
2
DeLaura
2
Edgewood
2
Hoover
7
Jackson
7
Jefferson
4
Johnson
12
Kennedy
5
Madison
9
McNair
3
Southwest
5
Spacecoast
1
Stone
7
Westshore
0
Total
79
Of these 79
students 78 %
could potentially
become high school
drop outs.
61 drop outs.
Stop and Jot
• Make a list of indicators you will want in an
Early Warning System.
• Next to each item, record what data source
Brevard currently has for retrieving that data.
2. FIGURE OUT WHY IT IS
OCCURRING
Patterns and root causes
What can we control?
Dropout Early Warning Signs
Disengagement
• Most students dropout mentally before ever physically
leaving the school
• A lack of engagement with school is a precursor to dropping
out
• Indicators of disengagement:
– Attendance problems
– Classroom/School engagement scales
– Behavior marks
• Students most often cite school-related reasons for
dropping out
Student engagement has emerged as the
cornerstone of high school reform initiatives.
• National Research Council publication,
“Engaging schools: Fostering high school
students’ motivation to learn”
– I can, I want to, I belong
– Competence, Autonomy, Belonging
• The other “ABCs”
• URL:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10421.html
Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Connell & Wellborn,
1990; NRC, 2004; Ryan & Deci, 2000
Student Engagement
• Engagement is the primary theoretical model for
understanding dropout and is, quite frankly, the bottom line
in interventions to promote school completion.
• Student engagement has emerged as the cornerstone of
high school reform initiatives.
• Both academic and social aspects of school life are integral
for student success; engagement at school and with
learning are essential intervention considerations.
Christenson et al., 2008
31
Both academic and social aspects of school life are integral for
student success; engagement at school and
with learning are essential intervention considerations.
• School completion is dependent on more than just
academic performance and an absence of inappropriate
behavior
• Yet… academic performance and behavior problems
typically represent the totality of what schools monitor
• A complete early warning system will include identification
of students who are socially and psychologically disengaged
in addition to academic and behavioral disengagement and
provide interventions specific to students’ needs
McPartland (1994); Dynarski & Gleason (2002)
Engagement is the primary theoretical model for
understanding dropout and is, quite frankly, the bottom line
in interventions to promote school completion.
Finn (1989 & 1993)
• Participation-Identification Model
– Indicators of withdrawal and engagement over
several years
– Belonging, Identification, Relationships
– Engagement has an exponential effect on
achievement and overall school success
“The Rich Get Richer”
Time Spent
Academically
Engaged
Feelings of
Connection and
Identification w/
School
Successful
Performance
Participation in
School Activities
Perceive more
teacher and
peer support
Feelings of
competence
and control
Engagement Theory
• 4 subtypes
Antidote to: students
characterized as bored,
Academic
unmotivated, and uninvolved
Academic – being a good
learner; getting good grades
Behavioral-good citizen;
participant; attending
Social
Behavioral
Psychological – believing
school matters
Social – having a feeling of
belonging in school
Adapted from Christenson & Anderson,
2002; Newmann, 1992; Russell et al.,
2005
Psychological
Dropping out is the most
extreme form of disengagement
Contextual Variable which Impact
Student Engagement
•
Family
–
–
–
–
•
Peers
–
–
–
–
–
•
Academic and motivational support for learning
Goals and expectations of successful school performance
Monitoring/supervision
Learning resources in the home
Educational expectations
Shared common school value
High attendance rates
Academic beliefs and efforts
Peers’ aspiration for learning
School
–
–
–
–
–
–
School climate
Instructional programming and learning activities
Mental health support
Clear and appropriate teacher expectations
Goal structure (task vs. ability)
Teacher-student relationships
Academic Engagement
• Indicators
– Course Failures
• Particularly Math and English in Middle School
– Credits earned
– GPA
– Homework completion
– Time on task
• Academic engagement variables have a
moderate to large effect on achievement
• Most visible form of engagement and the most
often tracked by school personnel
Dropout Early Warning Signs
Course Performance Indicators
• Course grades and failure rates are highly predictive of
which students will or will not graduate from high school.
• Students who fail one or more courses in the fall semester
of their first year of high school are significantly more likely
to eventually drop out
– 85% of students with 0 semester failures in their freshmen
year graduated in 4 years
– 70% of students with one semester F during 9th grade
graduate in 4 years
– Only 55% of students with two semester Fs in 9th grade
graduated in 4 years
– Students with 3 or more semester Fs are not likely to graduate
from high school
Calculating Risk with Course Performance
Data
• Freshman Course Failures, particularly in core academic
courses
– At the end of each marking period, identify the number of Fs
earned by each student
– Include both failures in any course and Fs earned in core
academic courses
• Freshman Grade Point Average (GPA)
– At the end of each marking period and at the end of the
cumulative year, identify students who earn a 2.0 or less
• Credits earned in each term
– Include the total number of credits accumulated per term for
each student.
– Identify students who fail to earn enough credits to be promoted
to 10th grade (typically 5)
– ¼ of the total number of credits required for graduation minus 1
Behavioral Engagement
• Among the most common concerns
expressed by educators and parents
• Indicators
– Attendance
– Suspensions
– Participation in classroom activities
• Significantly related to academic
achievement and school dropout
Dropout Early Warning Indicators
Attendance
• Attendance during the first year of high school is directly
related to high school completion
• Even moderate absences (5-10 days) in the first semester
of 9th grade are associated with eventual drop out
• Attendance is the biggest risk factor for failing 9th grade
• 9th grade failure is the biggest risk factor for high school
drop out
Dropout Early Warning Indicators
Attendance
• Missing more than 10% of instructional time is significant
– Translates to roughly 10 days of school per semester in most
high schools
• Students who miss more than 10% of the first 20 days of
school (2 days) are particularly at-risk for high school
dropout
• Any student missing more than 10% of instructional time
(at 20 day mark or at each quarter) should be flagged for
intervention
Dropout Early Warning Indicators
Behavioral Problems
• Early violent behavior
• Chronic misbehavior, especially if it results in suspension
or expulsion
• Criminal behavior in the community
• Middle and High Schools should identify students who
display chronic misbehavior or accrue 2 or more
suspension incidences in a semester period
Social Engagement
• Indicators
– Perception of support
– Affiliation with school
– Sense of belonging
– Perception of the value of school and school
related activities
– Peer group
.
Identifying Socially Disengaged Students
• List all students names at grade levels and have adults in
school initial next to students with whom they have a
personal relationship.
– Students with no initials by their names may be socially
disengaged
• Utilize a survey to identify students who are bullied, alienated
by peers, or who simply perceive that they have difficulty
connecting with peers
• Employ a systematic student-nomination process within
which school personnel indicate the students whom they
have concerns regarding peer and/or adult connections
• Determine which students are not actively engaged in
extracurricular activities through the review of club and sport
rosters and attendance logs
Stop and Jot
• Make a list of indicators you will want to add
to your Early Warning System to monitor
students who are socially disengaged.
• Where will we get this data?
• Who could monitor?
Psychological Engagement
• Indicators
– Sense of confidence and control
– Use of learning and problem solving strategies
– Investment in learning
– Perceived relevance of school for future
outcomes
• Significantly related to academic
achievement, school attendance, and high
school graduation.
Identifying Psychologically
Disengaged Students
• Utilize a survey to assess students’ sense of
control, relevance of schoolwork, and future
aspirations and goals
• Employ a systematic student-nomination
process within which school personnel
indicate the students whom they are
concerned regarding their interest in learning
or lack post-secondary goals
Putting it all together…
Middle School Early Warning Systems

School systems should focus on dropout prevention efforts in the beginning
of the middle grades at the latest
•
Academic indicators
– Fail either math or English
•
Engagement indicators
– Attend school less than 80% of the time
– Consistently miss instruction due to behavioral issues
– Psychological or Social disengagement
• Lack of peer group
• Lack of involvement in school extracurricular activities
• Low educational expectations
•
Retention
– Retained 1 or more years
•
Mobility
– Multiple schools during educational career
Putting it all together…
High School Early Warning Systems
•
Academic indicators
– GPA less than 2.0
– Failed Courses
– Behind in Credits
•
Engagement indicators
– Attend school less than 80% of the time
– Consistently miss instruction due to behavioral issues
– Psychological or Social disengagement
•
•
•
•
•
Lack of peer group
Lack of involvement in school extracurricular activities
Low educational expectations
Lack of personal relationship with adults at school
Retention
– Retained 1 or more years
•
Mobility
– Multiple schools during educational career
2. DO SOMETHING
WITH THEM
Interventions, MTSS
Designing Effective
Prevention/Intervention Services
• Identifying students at risk for dropping out is
only the first step
• Next step is to identify and provide effective
and appropriate dropout
prevention/intervention strategies
• Intervention planning is informed by the scope
of the identified problem (Tier 1, 2, 3) and the
specific needs of the students
Dropout Prevention Interventions
• Dropout prevention programs that are
disconnected from the core instructional
program of a school are unlikely to be a
good use of resources
• Schools should develop a continuum of
intervention supports which are readily
accessible as soon as a student is
indicated as at-risk or off-track
Early Intervention is the Answer
• Disengagement is a gradual process that
includes impaired or reduced participation, less
successful outcomes, and reduced
identification and belonging
• Identifying students at the first sign of
withdrawal significantly improves the likelihood
of re-engagement and successful school
completion
• Shift from a focus of preventing negative
outcomes, such as dropout, to promoting
student competence and support
Extreme Off Track
2-3 Years Behind
No chance for graduation in a
traditional school setting
Disengagement
Risk Factors:
1. Disengagement
•20% absenteeism
2. Behind in Credits
•Particularly Core
Course Failures
3. GPA less than 2.0
4. Failed FCAT
High Off Track
3 or more risk factors
Off Track
2 of 4 risk factors indicated
Students entering with 20%
absenteeism and/or 2 or more
F’s in 8th Grade
At Risk for Off Track
1 of 4 risk factors indicated
On Track
No risk factors indicated
Hendry County Schools
• Given the following…
A common theme among effective practices is that they
have a positive effect on the motivation of individual
students because they address underlying psychological
variables such as competence, control, beliefs about the
value of education, and a sense of belonging.
National Research Council, 2004, p. 212
Stop and Jot
• What do schools already have in place?
– Psychological
– Social
– Academic
– Behavior
• How else could we be proactive and
preventative?
Intervention Linked to Underlying Barrier
Disengaged Learners
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mentoring programs
Goal Setting & career planning
support
Frequent progress reports
Targeted rewards
Mandatory study hall
Mandatory homework help
Study skills classes
CAUTION: Failed Learners often
become disengaged over time and
may require both categories of
intervention support
Failed Learners
• Targeted, differentiated
instruction
• Additional instructional time
• Pre-teach essential skills,
content, and vocabulary
• Review/Reteach prerequisite
skills to address the learning
gap
• Prevention (requires vertical
articulation with
middle/elementary school
and early identification of atrisk students)
Effective Dropout Prevention Services
Effective Schools and Teachers Promote:
• Students’ understanding of what it takes to learn
• Confidence in their capacity to succeed in school
• A sense of belonging by personalizing instruction, showing an interest in
students’ lives, and creating a supportive, caring social context.
• High expectations for all students
And, Provide:
•
•
•
•
Challenging instruction
Support for meeting high standards
Opportunities for choice and control
Curriculum and instruction that is relevant to adolescents’ experiences,
cultures, and long-term goals
National Research Council, 2004
First Steps
• The most important first step in successfully
implementing MTSS/RTI and increasing learning is
ensuring the quality of full class instruction.
• The least expensive way to increase learning at your
school is to improve full class instruction.
• The change that will affect the most number of
students at your school is to improve full class
instruction.
Improving Tier 1
• Syllabus
• Pre test – prerequisite assessment
• Common Assessments – analyzing and using
the data
• Differentiation of content, process, product
• Proactively seeking out data of incoming
students
• Vertical alignment between 6th & 7th grade
• Vertical alignment between 8th & 9th grade
Group Collaboration
Intervention Jigsaw
• Review assigned material
• Discuss most important points
• Prepare to share back with your jigsaw group
You will be given 20 minutes to complete these tasks
Group Collaboration
• Return to your jigsaw group
You will have 20 minutes to share information
• Share any additional dropout
prevention/intervention strategies that your
schools have implemented with success.
• Given the information shared, discuss
potential next steps for your school sites.
• How can you support this next step?
You will have 10 minutes to discuss these points
Helping Students who Are Off Track
• Tier 2 - Academic
– Credit Retrieval
– Reading Intervention
Class
– Math Intervention Class
– Learning strategies
– AVID
– Academic Tutoring
– No Zero Zone
• Tier 2 – Behavior
–
–
–
–
–
Mentor Programs
Check In/Check out
Goal Setting
Behavior Contracts
Attendance Contracts
Support for FEW
(Intensive, Individualized Instruction – Tier 3)
Academics
• More intense targeted
skill interventions
• Customized
interventions
• Frequent progress
monitoring to guide
intervention design
Behavior
• Student centered
planning
• Customized function based
interventions
• Frequent progress
monitoring to guide
intervention design
Infrastructure of a
Multi-Tiered System of Supports
Think about…could we…
• Direct a significant amount of resources to critical transition
years (6th and 9th) to prevent academic and behavioral problems
• Provide opportunities for mentoring, advisement, and academic
support within the master schedule for all students
• Include classes which provide instruction in organization, study
skills, note-taking, problem solving, and communication in the
school’s master schedule
• Intensify instruction by providing additional time and personnel or
smaller class sizes for classes which typically result in high rates
of course failures
Scheduling of Multi-Tiered Supports
Suggestions – Are we already doing these?
• Build time into the school’s master schedule to allow for
weekly common planning/PLC time for content teams and
for cross content teams at least monthly
• Intervention teachers plan with core content teachers and
align intervention strategies with core instruction
• Develop school leadership team members who can monitor
and participate in the work of all other school teams
4. PROGRESS
MONITORING
Is what we are doing working?
Progress Monitoring the EWS
• The indicators in the Early Warning System can
continue to be used to monitor the progress of
students participating in dropout prevention
interventions
• Interventions should be considered effective for
students who move back on-track for graduation
• Students who continue to be identified as offtrack for graduation may require more intense
drop out prevention interventions.
• When evaluating results, be sure to check for
delayed outcomes associated with early
interventions
What Schools Do Matters!
• Freshman with weak academics entering high
school who reported having a positive 9th grade
year were almost twice as likely to graduate from
high school than students who entered with
strong academics but reported a negative 9th
grade academic experience
• Dropout prevention strategies which focus on
improving school climate, academic rigor, and
student support and monitoring have been found
to reduce dropout rates by as much as 50%
Where are we?
• What will it take to implement effective Early
Warning Systems in Brevard that impact
student achievement?
• What are our major barriers and how will we
overcome them?
Take Away Message…
Intervene early, persistently, and across the
contexts of school peers, school adults, and
the home and community to change student
developmental trajectories.
Christenson et al., 2008
T
References & Resources
•
•
•
•
•
Anderson, A. R., Christenson, S. L., & Lehr, C. A. (2004). School completion and
student engagement: Information and strategies for educators. In A. S. Canter, L. Z.
Paige, M. D. Roth, I. Romero, & S. A. Carroll (Eds.), Helping children at home and at
school II: Handouts for families and educators (pp. S2-65–S2-68). Bethesda, MD:
National Association of School Psychologists. Retrieved October 25, 2006 from
http://www.naspcenter.org/principals/nasp_compleducators.pdf
Appleton, J., Christenson, S.L., Kim, D., & Reschly, A. (2006). Measuring cognitive
and psychological engagement: Validation of the Student Engagement Instrument.
Journal of School Psychology, 44, 427-445.
Christenson, S.L., & Anderson, A. R. (2002). Commentary: The centrality of the
learning context for students’ academic enabler skills. School Psychology
Review,31(3), 378-393
Christenson & Thurlow (2004). School dropouts: Prevention, considerations,
interventions, and challenges. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(1), 3639.
Christenson, S.L., Reschly, A.L., Appleton, J.J., Berman, S., Spanjers, D., & Varro, P.
(2008). Best practices in fostering student engagement. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes
(Eds). Best Practices in School Psychology (5th Ed). National Association of School
Psychologists.
References & Resources
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Finn, J.D. (1989). Withdrawing from school. Review of Educational Research, 59, 117142.
Fredericks, J.A., Blumenfeld, P.C., & Paris, A.H. (2004). School engagement: Potential
of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59-109.
Lehr, Sinclair, & Christenson (2004). Addressing student engagement and truancy
prevention during the elementary school years: A replication study of the Check &
Connect model. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 9(3),279-301.
National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine (2004). Engaging schools:
Fostering high school students’ motivation to learn. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press
Reschly, A. & Christenson, S.L. (2007). Reading and School Completion: Critical
Linkages Among Reading Performance, Grade Retention, Special Education
Placements and High School Dropout. Manuscript under review.
Sinclair, Christenson, Evelo, & Hurley. (1998). Dropout prevention for high risk youth
with disabilities: Efficacy of a sustained school engagement procedure. Exceptional
Children, 65(1), 7-21.
Sinclair, Christenson, & Thurlow (2005). Promoting School completion of urban
secondary youth with emotional or behavioral disabilities. Exceptional Children, 71,
465-482.