Letter From IES Endorsing the Study

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION SCIENCES

National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance

Month XX, 2013

Dear District/Principal,

I am writing to introduce you to a new project funded by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) through 

the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) program called the Early Warning System and Intervention 

Monitoring System (EWIMS) study. This project is aimed at preventing high school dropout by using 

data to identify at-risk students early in high school and assigning students to interventions that help get 

them back on track for on-time graduation. The study will be conducted by REL Midwest at American 

Institutes for Research (AIR). For this study, ED is seeking more than 70 high schools in Ohio to 

participate. In addition to being part of a high-profile, innovative study, participating districts will receive 

free access to the EWIMS model, developed by the National High School Center at AIR, including the 

tool and training and technical support for implementation.

Improving the state’s current graduation rate is a focal point in Ohio’s Comprehensive Continuous 

Improvement Plan and the state has committed, through adoption of the Ohio Improvement Process, to 

promoting student success through data-driven decision making, targeted programming, ongoing student 

monitoring, and evaluation of improvement process effectiveness. In that vein, Ohio districts and schools

are increasingly interested in using an early warning system to identify students who are off track for 

graduation as early as possible. For this reason, the REL Midwest formed the Dropout Prevention 

Research Alliance, focused on improving graduation outcomes and reducing persistent disparities in 

graduation and dropout rates among student subgroups in Ohio. The goal of the alliance is to expand the 

implementation of early warning systems in Ohio districts and to conduct an efficacy study testing their 

impact on student outcomes and school processes. The proposed study is a two-year randomized 

controlled trial (RCT) to examine the impact of implementing an early warning system on school 

processes and student outcomes. The project responds to a need expressed by members of the REL 

Midwest’s Ohio Dropout Prevention Alliance for clear information about the efficacy of early warning 

systems. 

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, I encourage your participation, as many districts and 

schools are needed to generate clear and usable results from this evaluation. Thank you in advance for 

your consideration. If you have any questions about the study, please feel free to contact AIR’s project 

directors, Dr. Ann-Maria Faria (afaria@air.org, 202-403-5356) or Dr. Nicholas Sorensen 

(nsorensen@air.org, 312-283-2318). In addition, if I can provide any assistance to you in this matter, 

please feel free to contact me by phone at 202-219-1674 or email at Chris.Boccanfuso@ed.gov. Thank 

you for your time, and we look forward to speaking with you.

Sincerely,

Chris Boccanfuso, Ph.D.

Contracting Officer’s Representative, REL Midwest