Monitoring all students and proactively intervening on early warning signs has minimal-level evidence of improving dropout-related outcomes¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Of six studies supporting Recommendation 1, two found improved outcomes in at least one dropout-prevention outcome domain, but neither directly tested the full four-step recommendation. → Rumberger 2017

Evidence¶

Rumberger 2017¶

Rumberger, R., Addis, H., Allensworth, E., Balfanz, R., Bruch, J., Dillon, E., Duardo, D., Dynarski, M., Furgeson, J., Jayanthi, M., Newman-Gonchar, R., Place, K., & Tuttle, C. (2017). Preventing dropout in secondary schools (NCEE 2017-4028). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/24

q3 · i? · review · r3

The guide's Summary of Evidence for Recommendation 1 reports six contributing studies, five meeting WWC group design standards without reservations. The two positive studies examined the graduating school domain, but "there is no direct test of the full recommendation."

"Two studies found that the recommended practices improved student outcomes in at least one of the three outcome domains related to dropout prevention."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Individualized advocacy support and engagement curricula each have direct tests from multiple studies, giving stronger evidence than the other recommendations — related
• Students show signs of dropout risk early in high school, and schools that reach out in the ninth-grade year can keep them on track to graduate — a broader claim this one bears on
• BARR reduces ninth-grade chronic absenteeism in a large school-level randomized study — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Check & Connect has statistically significant positive effects on staying in school for high school students with disabilities — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Attendance, behavior, and course performance (the ABC indicators) reliably predict which secondary students are at risk of dropping out — related
• Demopolis High School's Google Sheets-based student tracker was followed by a 7% drop in chronic absenteeism and over 3% change in graduation rate — related
• Strong early-warning monitoring systems paired with strong norms and routines help students recover emotionally and engage academically — related
• Chicago's graduation-rate improvements have been credited to changed ninth-grade dropout-prevention practices triggered by on-track accountability and real-time data reports, and the review states accountability by itself was not sufficient — related
• Predictive learning analytics can generate early warnings of dropout risk and trigger targeted interventions in adult education — related
• Reviewed studies indicate AI predictive analytics can project student progress, group learners by risk, and enable early intervention — related
• AI-powered predictive analytics improves academic performance by enabling early identification of at-risk students and timely intervention — related
• Early warning and proactive support agents are associated with reported retention and grade improvements in institutional deployments — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Adult advocacy interventions show promising but variable effects on staying in and progressing in school — related
• Ninth-grade early warning systems around course grades and attendance led to substantial improvements in grades, graduation rates, and test-measured learning gains — related
• A substantial share of dropouts show no clear signs of disengagement or major problems in the years before dropping out — related