How Leaders Can Mitigate Student Failure Using an Early Warning System

A well-functioning Early Warning System (EWS) plays a crucial role in helping schools identify and support students at risk of school failure. By tracking key indicators such as attendance, behavior, and course performance, EWS enables schools to intervene early and prevent students from falling through the cracks. But how can schools maximize the impact of EWS to ensure student success?

In our podcast conversation, Sarah Frazelle, Senior Researcher and MTSS Trainer at AIR, shared valuable insights into the best practices for using an Early Warning System to drive equitable outcomes for all students.

“Early warning indicator systems are about that threshold that we're going to intervene at early. It is the actionable piece to have more equitable student outcomes as well. It’s not just the kids that are on our hearts and minds that we're supporting. It's also those kids who are really quiet. They show up all the time, but maybe they're not getting good grades, you know. So we really are trying to figure out why students are struggling.”

- Sarah Frazelle, Senior Researcher and MTSS Trainer at AIR

Organize Student Data

One of the most common challenges school leaders face is making sense of the overwhelming amount of student data available. While schools collect data across different systems—attendance records, behavior reports, academic performance—the real challenge lies in pulling it all together in a way that makes it actionable.

“Everybody has student information systems. Everybody's already collecting it. Then, we get into it, but we can't put the data together in these ways — that kind of flag students quickly, especially if we're looking across multiple indicators.” 

To make data manageable, it’s important to prioritize and organize it before meetings. This way, educators can focus on the most critical indicators and make quick, informed decisions. 

Tip: Keep it simple with the "ABC’s” - Attendance, Behavior, and Course failures.  These three factors often interact in ways that reveal the root causes of a student's struggles. Platforms like Branching Minds help teams zero in on these interactions to facilitate productive conversations about student support.

Branching Minds supports this process by unifying multiple data sources into one streamlined platform. With real-time syncing and auto-categorization of behavior data, the system helps schools see the full picture, allowing educators to make timely decisions without getting lost in excessive data.

🚀 Learn about how one school improved student outcomes by unifying their data.

Impact Student Outcomes

Collecting and organizing data is only half the battle. To truly impact student outcomes, schools need to be strategic about how they respond to the data. This is where many schools struggle: they might have various support systems in place—student support teams, MTSS teams, grade-level teams—but without coordination, interventions can become fragmented and ineffective.

“Obviously, the data alone is not going to change outcomes. Getting systematic around the interventions is another difficult thing. We have so many different programs going on in the schools. Everybody's kind of doing things in silos, and there's not a lot of communication across teams."

The key to successful interventions is transparency and communication. Schools should take stock of what programs and supports are already in place, and ensure that everyone—from teachers to administrators—knows how those supports are being used and monitored. For example, you may have attendance letters that your administrative team send out, but your teachers may also be calling home.  This would be a great opportunity for everyone to work together.

💡 Learn more about Attendance Interventions in our Intervention Guide.

🎧 Listen to an elementary school principal talk about attendance iniatives.

Tip: Don’t just put students into interventions—make sure there’s follow-up. Track progress and evaluate whether the interventions are making a difference. Branching Minds makes it easy to monitor progress and adjust interventions in real time, ensuring that efforts lead to meaningful outcomes.

Branching Minds plays a vital role here by offering a MTSS platform that integrates intervention tracking, progress monitoring, and communication tools. This enables schools to create collaborative, data-driven intervention plans, helping ensure that every student receives the support they need.

Strengthen Student Support Networks

Beyond data and interventions, creating a supportive environment is key to keeping students engaged and successful. Many secondary students struggle with feelings of disconnection, and this can often be a predictor of failure. Schools should focus on building strong support networks that make students feel connected and valued.

“A lot of our kids are feeling like they aren't connected to school, like they belong here, or they have any agency over what's going on. The more that we can kind of understand and unpack those pieces and actually implement as interventions school-wide. How do we increase the sense of belonging and have some of these conversations with the kids and families and communities actually to create an environment that feels supportive.”

Using EWS data to track patterns in attendance and behavior can reveal deeper issues, like a lack of engagement or connection. Schools can then implement school-wide interventions to foster a stronger sense of belonging. Studies show that even having one trusted adult at school can make a significant difference in a student’s outcomes.

🖥️Watch this webinar about Student Belonging

📕 Read this blog about the role of electives in student connectedness.

Tip: Strengthen relationships with students by building a culture of belonging. Branching Minds’ real-time reporting helps schools stay on top of engagement trends, making it easier to intervene early when students show signs of disengagement.

Intervene Early 

Ultimately, the power of an Early Warning System lies in its ability to provide actionable insights at the right time. When schools have access to real-time data on attendance, behavior, and course performance, they can intervene early—before a student reaches the point of failure.

“I think that every child has the ability to succeed. It's that we all don't work in the same ways. And so how do we get down to those root causes as soon as we start to see that a student is struggling so that they don't lose hope and end up dropping out or being pushed out of school.” 

The Branching Minds EWS Risk Report takes this proactive approach even further by providing nightly data syncing and customizable risk thresholds, allowing schools to personalize their interventions and act before it’s too late.

The Branching Minds EWS Risk Report

Other resources to check out:

• Podcast Recap: How MTSS Fosters a Sense of a Belonging
• Blog: How to Track and Support Students with Attendance