This video covers navigating and using the Early Warning Monitoring Resources on the
websites of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Educators can use these tools to identify students who are at risk during the school
year, track practice or programming adjustments in response to students’ risk, and reflect
on progress throughout the school year.
In this video, we’ll demonstrate how to use the Early Warning Monitoring Tool to combine
student data, assign interventions, and examine trends for individual students and groups
of students.
See other videos in this series for more on monitoring and responding to students’ risk
throughout the school year.
The Early Warning Monitoring Tool opens to a Main Menu with the Early Warning Implementation
Cycle; click on buttons for each step of the cycle.
Steps 1 and 2 can be done at the beginning of the school year, or whenever you are ready
to get started.
On each page is a navigation bar across the top.
Use this to return to the Main Menu, advance through the cycle or refer to earlier steps.
On each page, look for boxes in pale yellow.
These are ones where the user may make a selection or add text or numbers.
When the curser is in a yellow box, if choices are available a small triangle appears.
In Step 1, load student enrollment details from your local Student Info System or SIS.
Use the filters to preview groups of students, and click on ‘show all’ to clear filters.
Most pages have a More Info button in the upper right.
Click on More Info to see pop-up boxes with guidance and click a second time to remove
them.
Load students’ EWIS risk levels in Step 2.
These are available in Edwin student list reports: download reports for your students
and save as a csv file, trim them to a few key parameters, and load these into the tool
with a click of a button.
Examine details for students who are high risk.
Do this using data from the EWIS reports alongside info from a local SIS and other context to
consider underlying causes and determine how best to support those students.
For students who are high risk with low attendance, the underlying causes might be related to
intermittent or chronic health challenges, transportation, bullying, or a sign of disengagement
from schools and more.
Each of these could lead to different interventions or programmatic supports.
We’ve heard of districts using strategies like re-mapping bus routes, deepening relationships
with students, and community-building to cultivate a school where all students feel valued and
understood.
Several schools have adopted practices where a caring adult seeks out or connects with
those high risk students every day in a ‘check & connect’ type support.
This or other attendance strategies can be noted in the tool for tracking and adjusting
down the road.
Simply paste the SASIDs of the students in this program to track a group of students.
This menu of options, sometimes called an intervention inventory, can be built over
time in response to students’ needs and strengths.
In Step 5, import interim data from marking period 1.
These can include the ABCs – or attendance, behavior and course performance – which,
according to research are strong predictors of academic success.
Or start small with just attendance.
This is sometimes the most accessible from a local SIS.
Build the monitoring habit using attendance at first, and add others over time.
Or add other indicators to fit your local context: for example, tardies, postsecondary
readiness activities, or other locally determined measures.
On Step 5.2, review progress for students in an intervention.
Shown in red are ones where students are beginning to go off track.
Educators can review these together and discuss programmatic progress, or discuss whether
program changes are appropriate.
On Step 5.3, review progress for all students and see the number if interventions they are
in.
Use this to gauge students’ progress, change enrollment or assign to an intervention.
Examine summaries of intervention progress on the next step.
Update the view of students’ risk levels several times during the year by loading ABC
data each marking period.
Review progress and adjust interventions.
Changes can be made on an individual basis or systemically for groups of students.
At the end of the year, use the online resources to reflect on progress and consider future
changes.
There are several templates or example CSV files that show the preferred format for files
loaded into this tool.
These and other resources are available at the EWIS monitoring website.
Refer to the EWIS Monitoring Tool guide if you have questions, and email EWIS@doe.mass.edu
for support.
See other videos in this series to learn more about DESE’s early warning monitoring resources.