Using Data to Keep High-Risk Students in the Classroom

We count on our educators to help students make sense of all sorts of information, but how can school districts help educators make sense of the information hey have about their students? Our teachers’ inboxes are clogged with everything from grade reports and attendance records to discipline reports, SAT results, state assessments and survey data. As every teacher and principal knows, there is massive divide between receiving static data from disparate sources and putting the pieces together to improve education and help individual students.

The Spokane Public School District has spent the past few years developing a breakthrough solution to this problem. Using Tableau Software, Spokane now provides educators with web-based data dashboards that integrate multiple data sources to track performance goals and priorities in near real-time, using an intuitive visual interface that highlights trends and outliers. For the first time ever, teachers and administrators have a clear and holistic view of what’s really happening with their schools and students.

Spokane’s most exciting project so far is the Early Warning System, designed to reduce student dropout rates. The interactive dashboard they’ve created correlates live student data with known risk factors, allowing educators to identify students who are at risk of dropping out as early as the third grade. The system has garnered enthusiastic attention from NPR and The Seattle Times, and it will soon be replicated throughout the state of Washington. Download the Whitepaper Now