Getting Students on Track for Graduation: Impacts of the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System after One Year

A study by Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest examines the impacts of the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System (EWIMS), a systematic approach to early identification and intervention with students at risk of not graduating on time. The study randomly assigned 73 schools to use EWIMS or to continue with their usual practices for supporting at-risk students.

Description:

Early warning systems that use research-based warning signs to identify students at risk of dropping out of high school have emerged as one strategy for improving graduation rates. This study tested the impact of one early warning system, the Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System (EWIMS), on 37,671 students in grades 9 and 10 and their schools after one year of implementation. Seventy-three high schools were randomly assigned to implement EWIMS during the 2014/15 school year or to continue their usual practices for identifying and supporting students at risk of not graduating on time. 

 

Impact findings show that EWIMS reduced the percentage of students with risk indicators related to chronic absence and course failure but not related to low grade point averages, suspensions, or insufficient credits to graduate. At the school level, EWIMS did not have a detectable impact on school data culture, that is, the ways in which schools use data to make decisions and identify students in need of additional support. 

 

Findings suggest that overall implementation of the EWIMS seven-step process was low in nearly all EWIMS schools, and that implementation of EWIMS was challenging for participating schools. The authors hypothesize that other school-level processes, unmeasured in this study, also may have contributed to impacts on students. For example, effects might have emerged for chronic absence and course failure if schools prioritized encouraging students to show up and participate in their courses, even if they did not have a sophisticated set of interventions. 

 

Further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms through which EWIMS had an impact on chronic absence and course failure. This report provides rigorous, initial evidence that even with limited implementation during the first year of adoption, use of a comprehensive early warning system such as EWIMS can reduce the percentage of students who are chronically absent or who fail one or more courses. These short-term results are promising because chronic absence and course failures in grades 9 and 10 are two key indicators that students are off track for graduation.

After a year of limited implementation, EWIMS reduced chronic absence and course failures, but did not reduce the percentage of students with low grade point averages, suspensions, or insufficient credits for graduation.

The findings provide initial, rigorous evidence that EWIMS is a promising strategy for reducing rates of chronic absence and course failures, two key indicators that students are not on track for graduation. Even with these promising findings, EWIMS was challenging to implement in the first year and did not have an impact on other outcomes at the student or school level.