Family & Community Students & Families SSCE
College and Career Readiness

Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS)

Massachusetts currently has in place an Early Warning Indicator Index (EWII) for grade 9 students that indicates their risk levels for not graduating on time. The Department is also developing an Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS) to identify students kindergarten through high school that are potentially "off-track" for grade-level or developmental age.

The Current Early Warning Indicator Index (EWII)

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education currently creates summary and student-level "early indicator" reports referred to as the Early Warning Indicator Index (EWII). These reports are provided to districts in Excel file format through the Security Portal, and categorize ninth grade students by their risk-level for not graduating on time.

The Early Warning Indicator Index (EWII) assigns students who were enrolled in eighth grade at the end of the 2009-2010 school year one of five risk levels (Very High Risk, High Risk, Borderline, At Risk, or Low Risk) based on their grade 8 MCAS results, grade 8 attendance rate, age as of September 1, 2010, and number of in- and out-of-school suspensions in the 2009-2010 school year. The EWII can be used by the district as a starting point for identifying and supporting students who may be at risk of not graduating on time from high school.

Detailed rosters for these students-the majority of whom are likely to be high school freshmen in the district in the 2010-2011 school year-are provided to all districts in a Microsoft Excel workbook via its Accountability 2010 Drop Box in the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (ESE's) online Security Portal. A tool that automatically calculates risk levels for students who are not listed on the roster-the "EWII Risk Calculator"-is also provided.

Research is clear that a variety of factors contribute to a student's likelihood of not graduating on time. Because the EWII risk levels are calculated using statewide data, the district should also use local data to identify and support students, including, but not limited to, information on course grades, course completion rates, and freshman year attendance rates.

  

2010-11 School Year EWII Guidance and General Information

  

2010-11 School Year EWII Risk Calculator

The Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS) Under Development

The Department is creating the Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS), a data-driven system designed to identify students kindergarten through high school that are potentially "off-track" for grade-level or developmental age, including those students that are off-track for high school graduation (potential dropouts). This project is funded through the federal Longitudinal Data System Grant Program (LDS) and is part of a larger effort to develop an integrated suite of tools for Massachusetts educators. Future iterations of the model hope to expand its scope and include children from birth through college. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) is the contracted research group developing and validating the EWIS statistical model for the Commonwealth.