Reimagining Early Warning Systems for At-Risk Students

Posted by on August 13, 2012

The others at risk

A report from New Visions for Public Schools finds that identifying students early on who fall behind but then recoup and graduate could be key to getting them to succeed in college later, according to the website Gotham Schools. The report, which tracked students in 75 New Visions-supported city schools through high school and into college, finds that students who graduate with a Regents diploma after years of struggling are much less likely to succeed in college than those with a history of good performance. Schools tend to pay special attention to students with obvious obstacles to overcome, such as a disability or status as an English language learner, but students who experience a few bad semesters in tenth grade and then earn passing grades junior year don’t always register as “at risk” to their schools, the report concludes. The report advocates that schools expand the definition “at-risk” to include any student who has experienced ups and downs — which are marked and reviewed according to a metric system detailed in the study that New Visions schools will continue to use. It also argues that districts like New York City are pushing schools in this direction by emphasizing schools’ graduation rate as the main benchmark of success.

Read more: http://gothamschools.org/2012/07/31/study-students-who-slip-before-they-succeed-still-at-risk-later-on/

See the report: http://www.newvisions.org/