The Clark County Professional Learning Partnership (CCPL) was formed to support data use and professional learning in the central office and schools of the Clark County School District (CCSD) in Nevada. CCSD is the nation’s 5th largest school district and serves a large and diverse population of students. As part of a continuing partnership, staff from the CCSD superintendent’s office, instructional office, and research department are working with REL West to support the effective dissemination and use of data, tools, and evidence to improve student outcomes. Central office staff are interested in better understanding which types of information will best help principals and teachers deliver effective student supports and help improve student outcomes, and in understanding and enacting optimal strategies for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating this information to schools. As part of this effort, a key strategy is building on previous collaborative research conducted by REL West and CCSD to develop a system for identifying and supporting students at risk of falling off track for high school graduation before they actually fall behind.
Partnership Objectives
REL West will help the Clark County School District analyze and use its available data to develop indicators of academic risk and to improve supports for students who may be at risk of failing to graduate from high school. Specifically, this partnership will:
- Support CCSD’s efforts to refine their early warning indicator (EWI) dashboard system, with a particular emphasis on developing accurate indicators and an EWI system for identifying potentially at-risk students at the elementary and middle school levels;
- Support uptake and effective usage of the EWI system, including support for helping CCSD to maximize the accessibility and ease of use for the system; and
- Support school-level efforts to leverage EWI data to identify and deploy supports for at-risk students, improving the extent to which students identified as at risk actually receive appropriate and effective supports.
Resources
Research on Indicators, Including Academic Mindsets and Behaviors
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Research report:
Early Indicators and Academic Mindsets in the Clark County School District
This study examined how 8th grade indicators of attendance, credits earned, Fs, and student grade point average (
GPA) could identify 8th grade students at risk of falling off track for graduation by the end of the 9th grade. It also examined students’ reported academic mindsets and behaviors, and how they related to progress through school.
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Event:
Early indicators of High School Graduation and Academic Mindsets in Clark County School District — Community Partners Meeting
This workshop for high-school principals and data teams in Clark County included an orientation to the
EWI data dashboard and time for schools to work in data teams to answer specific questions about their students. A final segment focused on research evidence about effective interventions and introduced some new options that schools might try.
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Research report:
Growth Mindset, Performance Avoidance, and Academic Behaviors in Clark County School District
This study examined student and teacher attitudes and beliefs about growth mindset, performance avoidance, and academic behaviors in Nevada’s Clark County School District. Most students reported beliefs that are consistent with a growth mindset. Students’ reported levels of growth mindset, performance avoidance, and academic behaviors differed significantly by grade level, prior academic achievement, English learner status, and race/ethnicity.
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Research report:
Academic Mindsets and Behaviors, Prior Achievement, and the Transition to Middle School
This study focuses on identifying the factors that predict school disengagement and course failure as students make the transition to middle school. The results inform efforts to identify and support students who may be at risk of falling behind or disengaging from school.
Projects
Establishing an Early Warning Indicator System
As CCSD seeks to support its students in achieving high school graduation and preventing dropout, earlier work with REL West identified key indicators of falling off track and critical times at which individual students are most at risk. Together, REL West and CCSD have built an early warning indicator system to identify students at risk of high school dropout and find appropriate interventions to support them. The system was piloted in the 2017/18 school year, and subsequent work is focusing on refining and expanding the use of this system to identify and support more students before they fall off track.
REL West conducted a workshop for high school principals and data teams in November 2018, as the EWI system was introduced districtwide. This event included an orientation to the EWI data dashboard and time for schools to work in data teams to answer specific questions about their students. A final segment focused on research evidence about effective interventions and introduced some new options that schools might try. A similar presentation to community groups in November gave an overview of the information.
REL West also continues to assist with data analysis to improve the EWI system. Recognizing that high schools typically do most of their planning over the spring and summer, CCSD wanted the EWI dashboard to be available to schools as early as possible in the spring. So REL West conducted additional analysis to determine the extent to which the indicators being used (low attendance, low GPA, failing course grades, and low credits) accurately identified 8th grade students who fell off track in the 9th grade, if they were based solely on data available at the end of the first semester of the 8th grade. REL West also conducted analysis to examine the accuracy of the predictions if discipline data were added as a new indicator. Based on these analyses, CCSD now populates the EWI system with data on the four initial indicators plus discipline data each year as soon as first semester 8th grade data become available.
A further study now underway will provide new analysis to inform Clark County and others about predictors of school disengagement and course failure as students make the transition to middle school, to enable earlier identification and support.
Connecting Students to Effective Supports
REL West and CCSD aim to increase the extent to which students who are identified as at risk by the EWI system actually receive appropriate academic or other needed supports. The district is currently working on improving its Multi-Tiered System of Support, and REL West has provided input to district staff and interested community groups.
REL West has provided information about a range of evidence-based interventions that focus on socio-emotional learning, including growth mindset and perceptions of belonging. Some of these interventions are short and straightforward to implement. Various options for testing the impact of one or more of these interventions are being explored.
Partners
The CCPL Partnership’s primary partner is the Clark County School District. Within this partnership, participants include the Chief Instructional Officer, Assistant Superintendent for Assessment, Accountability, Research and School Improvement (AARSI), and staff from throughout the AARSI department.