Telephone School Screening Protocol/Interview

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Draft School Screening Protocol

School Screening Protocol

Introductory script: Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today and discuss the Impact of an 

Early Warning and Intervention Monitoring System (EWIMS) on Student and School Outcomes Study 

funded by the Institutes of Educational Science within the U.S. Department of Education. We are very 

excited about your school’s interest in participating in the study and are looking forward to talking more 

about whether the study might be a good opportunity for your school. Participation in this study is 

voluntary for schools. Today we will first ask you questions about how your school works with students 

who are at-risk for not graduating on time and then we have some questions about your school’s data use 

practices. By data use practices we are referring to things like the professional climate around using data, 

supports for data such as professional development and/or structured time to review data, frequency of 

data use and using data to track progress.

Required Introductory Talking Points

 This project will provide participating schools access to the National High School Center’s Early 

Warning and Intervention Monitoring System (EWIMS), which will allow you to:

o Import data from your student information system and flag students using evidence-based 

indicators of risk that identify at-risk students early in 9th or 10th grade

o Assign those students to interventions of your choosing and monitor their progress over 

time

o Examine which programs, interventions, or support strategies appear to be most effective 

in helping students get back on track

 You will receive high quality professional development to help you use the tool and implement a 

seven-step systematic process for using to data to help you make decisions about how to help atrisk students get back on track for on-time graduation

 All of this is provided at no cost

 Because this is a research project, in January/February, we will use a lottery to divide all 

participating schools in two groups. The first group will receive EWIMS and the PD beginning in 

February of 2014. The second group will receive EWIMS and the PD in the fall of 2015.
 The goal of this interview today is for us to get a sense of what you’re currently doing with data 

and how you are using or thinking about data to help at-risk students. Some of the questions may 

seem redundant but this is simply to make sure we are getting as much detail as possible.

 We know that most schools are not yet implementing a lot of these practices; the goal today 

is to make sure that what we would be bringing to your school would have added value for 

you and that it could produce a positive impact on students in your school.

School Name: Principal Name: 

Email: Telephone: 

School Characteristics

1. How many 9th grade students are enrolled in fall 2013? 

2. What is the structure of your school?

o Grade structure? (e.g., 7–12, 9–12)

o Campus structure? (e.g., multiple campuses, 9th grade campus separate)

o Would you consider your school to be an alternative education setting? (e.g., magnet, 

community/charter, vocational/technical school)

3. Do you have any alternative programs within your school? (e.g., magnet, vocational/technical school, 

credit recovery program)

4. How many grading periods do you have at your school? (e.g., times in which students are awarded an 

actual credit, not just marking periods with progress reports?)

o Full year (once per year)

o Semester (twice per year)

o Trimester (three times per year)

o Quarterly (four times per year)

5. What kind of grading scale do you use? 

o A traditional 4.0 or 5.0 point scale?/ A through F

o Do you use competency-based grades? 
6. What was your school’s graduation rate for the 2012–13 academic year?

7. What was your school’s graduation rate for the 2011–12 academic year? 

8. What is the source of the graduation rate? (e.g., report card? DOE grad rate?)

9. Are you a Race to the Top school? Can you describe your engagement with RttT (only applicable to 

Ohio)? 

o Yes, RttT School/District

o No, not involved with RttT

10. What types of computers are used in your school by staff? (check all that apply)

o MAC

o PC

o iPads or other tablets

11. What version of Microsoft Office do you currently have installed on your computers?

o PC – MS Office 2013

o PC – MS Office 2010

o PC – MS Office 2007

o PC – MS Office 2003

o PC – MS Office XP (2002)

o PC – MS Office 2000

o PC – MS Office 1997

o PC – MS Office 1995

o Mac – MS Office 2013

o Mac – MS Office 2011

o Mac – MS Office 2008

o Mac – MS Office 2004

o Mac – MS Office X

o Mac – MS Office 2001

o Mac – MS Office 1998
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Data-Driven Dropout Preventions Efforts 

Next we would like to talk more about if and how your school is currently using data to identify students 

who may be at risk of not graduating on time.

For each of the following questions, interviewer will allow the school interviewee to respond to the 

question and the interviewer will select the most appropriate response option.

12. Does your high school have an early warning system tool that identifies students who may be at risk 

of not graduating? 

o Yes, we have an early warning system tool used to identify students who may be at risk of not 

graduating in my high school.

If yes, what is the name of the system or tool? 

If yes, please specify:

o No, my high school does not currently have an early warning system tool to identify students 

who may be at risk of not graduating in my high school.

o I'm not sure. 

13. Does your high school use a student information system (SIS) or another data tool to identify students 

who may be at risk of not graduating from high school on-time? 

o Yes, we have a tool to identify students who may be at risk of not graduating in my high 

school.

o No, my high school does not currently have a SIS or other data tool to identify students who 

may be at risk of not graduating in my high school. IF NO, SKIP TO QUESTION 15.

o I'm not sure.

If yes, please specify: 

14. Tell me about the indicators in your tool or SIS.

o What are the indicators? 

o What are the cut-offs based on—does the tool use evidence-based or locally validated 

indicators? 

IF THE SCHOOL DOES NOT HAVE AN EWS OR SIS TOOL THAT FLAGS AT-RISK STUDENTS:

15. Does your school review student attendance data to determine which students may be at risk (i.e., 

missing more than X days per year)?

o No

o Yes
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If yes:

o For which grades are you examining student attendance data (circle all that apply)?

i. Grade 9

ii. Grade 10

iii. Grade 11

iv. Grade 12

o How often and when do you review attendance data?

o How do you determine which students are at risk (i.e., what is the cut point for when students 

have too many absences)?

o How did you make the decision to use that cut point (i.e., district policy, state policy, based 

on research, experience at your school)?

o What happens with students whose absences exceed the threshold?

___________________

o What are the strategies or interventions that you use to support these students? 

o Are these strategies required or suggested to students?

o At what grade levels are they offered or required?

Note: It is important to get a strong sense of whether the school is going beyond notification practices 

(often required by law) to working with the student and his/her parents to identify the root cause of 

the attendance challenge.
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16. Does your school review student course performance data (including course failures, credit 

deficiencies) to determine which students may be at risk? 

o No

o Yes

If yes:

o For which grades are you examining course performance data (circle all that apply)?

i. Grade 9

ii. Grade 10

iii. Grade 11

iv. Grade 12

o How often and when do you review these data?

o How do you determine which students are at risk (i.e., how many course failures or what is 

the credit deficiency that would identify which students are at risk)?

o How did you make the decision to use that cut point (i.e., district policy, state policy, based 

on research, experience at your school)?

o What happens with students whose course failures or credit deficiencies exceed the 

threshold?

o What are the strategies or interventions that you use to support these students? 

o Are these strategies required or suggested to students?

o At what grade levels are they offered or required?
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Note: It is important to get a strong sense of whether the strategies to address credit deficiencies are 

targeted primarily toward upper grades (11 and 12) or also to lower grades (9 and 10). It is also 

important to understand whether interventions (e.g., credit recovery) are required of Grade 9 and 10 

students or just encouraged (e.g., summer credit recovery). We want to know whether the school is 

making an active effort to identify students with course failures in Grade 9 and 10, and going beyond 

notification (e.g., informing students or parents of course performance) to require (not just 

encourage) these students to recover credit early in high school.

17. What other kinds of student data do you look at and for which grades? (check all that apply below)

N/A Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12

Behavior 

referrals 

Behavior 

suspensions 

Grade point 

average 

(GPA)



State 

assessment 

results



Other:



Other:



Other:



Other:



For each additional data source:

o How often and when do you review these data?

o How do you determine which students are at risk (i.e., where do you draw the cut point)?

o How did you make the decision to use that cut point (i.e., district policy, state policy, based 

on research, experience at your school)?
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o What are the strategies or interventions that you use to support these students? 

o Are these strategies required or suggested to students?

o At what grade levels are they offered or required?

18. In what other ways do you assign students to intervention, or support programming?

o Demographics (such as free or reduced-price lunch)

o We use teacher recommendations or referrals.

Specify: 

o Other types of data

Specify: 

19. Can you please tell us about any other interventions, programs, or strategies you currently have in 

place to support students?

20. Does your school have a team or group of individuals that focuses on students who are identified as at 

risk of not graduating from high school? 

o Yes, we have a dedicated school-based team.

o Yes, we have a school-based team that focuses on students who are identified as at risk of not 

graduating from high school, but it is part of another team.
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o Yes, the district has a team that focuses on students who are identified as at risk of not 

graduating from high school.

o No, there is no team at the district or high school levels.

o Other (please specify)

21. How often does your school review data to identify students at risk of not graduating?

o 4 times per year (once per quarter)

o 3 times per year

o 2 times per year

o 1 time per year

o Other

Specify: 

o I'm not sure.

22. Do teachers in your school have access to student data that identifies students at risk of not 

graduating?

o Yes, and all teachers access it regularly

o Yes, and some teachers access it regularly

o Yes, and some teachers access it occasionally

o Yes, but very few teachers actually access it

o Yes, but no teachers actually access it

o No, teachers do not have access to this type of data

o Other (please specify)

23. Please describe the nature of collaboration around student data in your school. 

Probes:

o Are these collaborations generally formal (scheduled meeting times) or informal?
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o Who participates in these meetings?

o What is the focus of these meetings? (data analysis, sharing/discussing student work, lesson 

planning, ways to improve or modify instruction, focus on individual students, focus on 

problem content areas, etc...) 

o What are the goals of these meetings? (Identify students who need additional support? 

Identify school or class-level instructional issues? Create instructional plans?)

o Do teachers review other data (e.g., interim assessment data, curriculum-based assessments, 

teacher-created assessments) along with data that identify students at risk of not graduating?

24. Does your school have a system to monitor students' progress in interventions/supports to which they 

are assigned?

o Yes (please specify)

o No

o Unsure

25. Has your school received any professional development on data use? (In-service, pre-service, ongoing 

coaching). 

If yes:

o Who delivered the PD (Is this delivered by district and/or school staff)?

o Is the training mandatory?
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o What has been the focus (content) of the professional development sessions?

o What was the duration of the PD? (One-time training? Is ongoing training provided or 

available?) 

o What is the mode of delivery of the PD? (Is it face to face? Online? Video?)

o What materials have been provided to support your and/or your staff’slearning? (Are there 

any sample materials that we can take a look at?)

If no:

o What type of professional development would be most useful?

26. Is there anything else you would like to share with us about how your school approaches dropout 

prevention interventions and strategies? 

Major Initiatives at Your School or District

27. What are the top three initiatives at your school currently? These could be school, district, or statedriven initiatives that your school prioritizes.

o 1. 

o 2.
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o 3.

28. What are the top three initiatives planned for the next 2 years? (e.g., new curriculum, current or new 

focus for PD?)

o 1. 

o 2.

o 3.

29. Do you have any plans to develop or implement an early warning system within your school or as 

part of a larger district initiative before the fall of 2015?

o Yes

o No

o Maybe

If yes or maybe:

o What do you anticipate developing or implementing before fall of 2015?

District Policies About Research

30. What are your district’s policies around participating in research projects? 

Is there a formal research review process in your district that we would need to follow before 

we move forward? 
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o Who needs to ultimately sign off on participation in research projects for your school?