Student Data Tracking Model Used To Improve Academic Success

In an article on its website, PBS NewsHour (12/7, Fritz) profiles Broadmoor Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which three years ago, had major discipline and academic problems. Administrators at the school implemented "a data-driven model known as Diplomas Now...to target students who were showing early signs of dropping out. Traditional models use testing to track student performance in the classroom. Under the Diplomas Now model, tardiness, unexcused absences, and misbehavior are also charted and flagged as problems that could lead to larger issues later in a student's life." The piece quotes Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University, who founded the program, saying, "We can really map where the schools and where the kids are. It's almost like insider trading for the social good."