More States Flag Potential Dropouts With Warning Data

Delfino Mendoza-Guillen, 18, attends Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. He is part of of Check and Connect, an early-warning program that uses data to target students who might be at risk of dropping out of school.

—Tim Gruber for Education Week

By Sarah D. Sparks

While more states and districts are developing “early warning systems” to target students most at risk of dropping out, many of those systems may still not be reaching students early enough, according to the first national study to look at the data-based identification-and-intervention practice.

A study released Tuesday morning by Civic Enterprises, a Washington-based policy firm, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that 16 states now produce early warning systems that flag students who are not “on track” to graduate from high school, while 18 others have plans to implement such systems. Only four states so far—Delaware, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Virginia—provide early warning feedback to educators on a weekly or daily basis.

“A lot of these school districts and states are awash in data,” said John M. Bridgeland, the chief executive officer of Civic Enterprises and a co-author of the study. “The big problem has been using that data in a way that’s useful to teachers, administrators, and community-based nonprofits to...