National High School Center’s EWS Tool and Collaborative Work Featured in Education Week

The National High School Center’s early warning system (EWS) project was recently featured in a February 8^th Education Week article, “Data Tools Aim to Predict Student Performance.”

The article focused on the efforts of states and districts across the nation to utilize data systems to identify and support at-risk students.  Two of the data systems highlighted were the National High School Center’s Early Warning System High School and Middle Grades Tools. The EWS Tools rely on nationally validated indicators of risk, such as attendance, behavior and course performance, to identify students who are off track. Once these students are identified using the data gleaned from the Tools, districts and schools can then focus resources on those students who might need more support.

One such district is Washington Local Schools in Toledo, Ohio, which was also featured in the article. Washington Local recently adopted the EWS Tools and is now in the process of creating appropriate supports for at-risk students identified by the Tools. Other districts in Virginia and California are also using the EWS Tools through collaborations between the National High School Center and the state departments of education.

EWS Tool users can connect to members of Washington Local’s EWS Teams, as well as other users through our new EWS Community of Practice. The Community of Practice, a free online forum, features discussion and collaboration on the setup and implementation of the EWS Tools. 

Note: This blog post was originally authored under the auspices of the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The National High School Center’s blog, High School Matters, which ran until March 2013, provided an objective perspective on the latest research, issues, and events that affected high school improvement. The CCRS Center plans to continue relevant work originally developed under the National High School Center grant. National High School Center blog posts that pertain to CCRS Center issues are included on this website as a resource to our stakeholders.