{"id":21724,"date":"2014-04-09T07:25:13","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T11:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=21724"},"modified":"2014-04-09T07:23:47","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T11:23:47","slug":"mining-student-data-to-keeps-kids-from-dropping-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/04\/09\/mining-student-data-to-keeps-kids-from-dropping-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining Student Data To Keep Kids From Dropping Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo<\/a>

Sammy Mack \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s report card day at Miami Carol City Senior High, and sophomore Mack\u00a0Godbee\u00a0is reviewing his grades with his mentor, Natasha\u00a0Santana-Viera.<\/p>\n

The first quarter on\u00a0Godbee\u2019s\u00a0report card is littered with Ds and\u00a0Fs. This quarter, there are more Cs and\u00a0Bs. He\u2019s got an A in English.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations on that,\u201d says\u00a0Santana-Viera. \u201cWhen you need help, do you know where to go?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStraight to y\u2019all,\u201d says\u00a0Godbee.<\/p>\n

Lots of teachers talk to their students about their report cards. But this conversation is the result of a school initiative to monitor student data\u2014looking for dropout risk before the obvious signs that a student is struggling. It\u2019s part of a national program called\u00a0Diplomas Now<\/a>, which operates in several schools in Florida.<\/p>\n

Talking to\u00a0Godbee\u00a0about his report card and his goals for the next quarter is just one piece of a strategic plan to make sure he stays in school.<\/p>\n

Florida lawmakers are currently considering\u00a0a proposed bill<\/a>\u00a0that would, among other things, create similar early warning systems in middle schools to flag students who are at risk of dropping out.<\/p>\n

\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/03\/Data_Ed_SD_Mack_web.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

CONNECTING THE DATA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to collect information and look at information,\u201d says Scott\u00a0Crumpler, the South Florida field manager for Diplomas Now. \u201cBut what you do with that information is the key element and key component of our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, the Florida Department of Education and schools across the state have collected a massive amount of information about students\u2014grades, attendance, demographics, behavior, test scores. That information has been used to assess how well a school or a district is doing.<\/p>\n

But the Diplomas Now program\u2014which had representatives speak to the Florida House K-12 Subcommittee last November\u2014takes student data and predicts which students are in danger of not graduating. The kids identified are then connected with support services.<\/p>\n

At Carol City, those connections begin in a conference room nicknamed the War Room.<\/p>\n

Once a week, teachers, sports coaches and administrators gather around a heavy wood table in the War Room to discuss students who are in trouble. They\u2019re joined by partners from the organization\u00a0Talent Development<\/a>\u2014which analyzes student data,\u00a0City Year<\/a>\u2014which provides mentors, and\u00a0Communities in Schools<\/a>\u2014which helps get kids support like health care and social services.<\/p>\n

An analyst crunches data on student attendance, behavior, and performance in math and English. Then, based on some\u00a0dropout risk studies<\/a>\u00a0from Johns Hopkins University, she flags kids who are on a downward trend.<\/p>\n

In the War Room meetings, those students\u2019 dossiers become a slide on a PowerPoint. The educators at the table then talk about how to turn things around for the student.<\/p>\n

At a meeting one Tuesday in February, the student projected at the front of the room has been flagged for missing class and slipping grades.<\/p>\n

A facilitator asks if anyone has insight into what\u2019s going on with the young man.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to me last week and said, \u2018I haven\u2019t had anything to eat all day,\u2019\u201d says a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that happens again, and he says that he\u2019s hungry, we keep snacks in the office,\u201d offers another.<\/p>\n

One educator chimes in that the student spent a week-and-a-half living in a car this semester.<\/p>\n

Somebody suggests putting him in touch with homeless services. A teacher he doesn\u2019t have offers to get him a planner so he can stay on top of his classwork while things are in flux at home. A sports coach volunteers to be the point person.<\/p>\n

THE CORE OF THE PROBLEM<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t get to the core of the problem, we can\u2019t teach them,\u201d says Tracy Troy, a math and special education teacher who has been at Carol City for 14 years.<\/p>\n

When the Diplomas Now program was introduced three years ago, Troy was apprehensive about getting involved with students\u2019 problems outside her classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that I don\u2019t care, but I care too much. It weighs on you,\u201d says Troy. \u201cThose are your children while you\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, she says, the War Room meetings help her help the kids.<\/p>\n

It costs about $600 per student to run this kind of Diplomas Now program. Currently, the initiative at the Carol City site is mostly supported by grants. The U.S. Department of Education has given Diplomas Now $30 million to conduct a randomized, control study of how the model works. The project also has $12 million in backing from the PepsiCo Foundation.<\/p>\n

When it comes to return on investment, supporters of early warning systems often point to a\u00a0Northeastern University<\/a>\u00a0study that found high school dropouts cost taxpayers an average of $292,000 over the course of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Last school year, a third of Carol City students who were flagged for missing school got back on track to graduation. Two-thirds of the students who were having behavioral problems made a turnaround.<\/p>\n

GETTING BACK ON TRACK<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sophomore<\/a>

Sammy Mack \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Sophomore Mack Godbee has been setting new goals. It's part of the Diplomas Now program.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mack\u00a0Godbee, the sophomore pulling up his grades, is one of those students making a comeback after getting flagged by the Diplomas Now program.<\/p>\n

If his name hadn\u2019t been identified, says\u00a0Godbee, \u201cI think I would have ended up dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ended up dead, he says, because he spent a lot of time on the street. When his dad left,\u00a0Godbee\u00a0says he wanted to show his mom they didn\u2019t need him. He started selling drugs.<\/p>\n

He was six years old.<\/p>\n

He says by the time he got to high school, he was affiliated with a gang. He skipped classes. Didn\u2019t study. He was angry all the time.<\/p>\n

Which would be easy to miss.<\/p>\n

Godbee\u00a0is soft-spoken, thin, and on the day of the report card conference, he\u2019s dressed in a soft cotton oxford buttoned at the neck.<\/p>\n

But earlier this school year, after looking at the data,\u00a0Santana-Viera\u2014Miss Santana, he calls her\u2014sat\u00a0Godbee\u00a0down and asked:\u00a0Are you okay?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI sat right there and I thought about it, like, am I really ok?\u201d says\u00a0Godbee.<\/p>\n

For the first time in his life, he said, \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be the person I am now; I want to be a different person,\u201d says\u00a0Godbee. \u201cI want to be that kid who makes straight As and\u00a0Bs\u00a0on his report card. Be in school every day on time. Be on that honor roll list. Go on field trips.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of all this isn\u2019t to collect data; it\u2019s to change what\u2019s happening for individual kids,\u201d says Paige Kowalski, a state policy director for the\u00a0Data Quality Campaign<\/a>\u2014a group that advocates for better use of all that student information the states collect.<\/p>\n

About 20 states have developed early warning systems like the one proposed in Florida.<\/p>\n

Kowalski says schools could take a cue from the medical field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just put out reports saying the hospital lost all these patients and saved these people,\u201d says Kowalski. \u201cThey actually look at it and say, \u2018what can we do better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At Carol City, the answer is to try to find kids in trouble before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s report card day at Miami Carol City Senior High, and sophomore Mack\u00a0Godbee\u00a0is reviewing his grades with his mentor, Natasha\u00a0Santana-Viera. The first quarter on\u00a0Godbee\u2019s\u00a0report card is littered with Ds and\u00a0Fs. This quarter, there are more Cs and\u00a0Bs. He\u2019s got an A in English. \u201cCongratulations on that,\u201d says\u00a0Santana-Viera. \u201cWhen you need help, do you know where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[865,433,725,1156,205,1097,614,931],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21724"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21810,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724\/revisions\/21810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}