Data at the Start: How to Use Early Insights to Support Students

WHY THE FIRST 30 DAYS MATTER

By October, most schools already know which students are quietly slipping. The problem isn’t intuition—it’s signal. When attendance, quick screeners, early grades, and behavior are viewed together, patterns jump out fast. That’s how you move from “we think” to “we know”—and support students sooner.

This guide shows exactly what to collect, how to combine it, and how to act using a simple early-warning profile you can run in a spreadsheet or visualize in a dashboard (SOLVED’s dashboards sync daily and surface the flags automatically).

NYC note: If you’re in NYC, “ATS” = Automate The Schools, the DOE’s student information system. Everywhere else, read “SIS” for your local platform.

WHAT TO COLLECT IN WEEKS 1–4 (BY SIGNAL AND TIMING)

• Week 1
  
  • Enrollment/roster and schedules
  • Contact info quality
  • IEP/504 flags
  • Home language
  • Prior-year exam levels

• Week 1–2
  
  • Attendance (daily and % present)
  • Tardies, no-shows
  • Family contact attempts

• Week 2–3
  
  • Universal screeners (reading and math)
  • Baseline writing sample
• Week 2–4
  
  • Early coursework signals: missing/late assignments; first quizzes; unit 1 grades
  • Behavior: minor incidents, office referrals (ODRs)
  • Student voice: short “How’s it going?” survey (belonging, challenge, support)

MTSS Tiering Notes: Begin preliminary identification of students for Tier 2 or Tier 3 support using early academic, behavioral, and social-emotional signals. Document potential interventions and track initial responsiveness, aligning with the school’s MTSS framework.

Pro tip: Don’t wait for perfect data. Coverage > precision in September. Document your thresholds, publish them to staff, and improve them each year.

MINIMAL-VIABLE SCREENERS (FAST + PREDICTIVE)

• Reading: one-on-one fluency or computer-based screener; store percentile or grade-level band.
• Math: computation + problem-solving screener; record overall percentile or “at/near/below benchmark.”
• Belonging survey (3 questions):

1. I feel like I belong in this class.
   
   
2. An adult at school checks in on me.
   
   
3. I know where to get help if I’m stuck.

 Flag “disagree/strongly disagree.” Keep it short so you hit 95%+ participation by week 3.

BUILD A SIMPLE EARLY-WARNING PROFILE (5 SIGNALS)

 Use five common, high-signal indicators. Score each student and combine to get a single Risk Index.

Signals and default thresholds

1. Attendance: <90% present so far (+2 pts); 90–94% (+1)
   
   
2. Coursework: ≥3 missing/late assignments or grade <70 in any core (+2); 1–2 missing (+1)
   
   
3. Screener: <20th percentile or “Below Benchmark” (+2); 20–39th (+1)
   
   
4. Behavior: ≥2 ODRs or 3+ classroom incident notes (+2); 1 ODR (+1)
   
   
5. Prior-year exam/grade: Lowest performance band (+1)
   

Risk Index = sum of points (0–9)

• 0–1: On Track
• 2–3: Watch
• 4–9: Priority Support

Google Sheets formula (copy/paste)
Assume:
B2 = Attendance % (0–1)
C2 = Missing assignments (count)
D2 = Screener percentile (0–100)
E2 = ODR count
F2 = Prior-year band (Low, Mid, High)

‍

=LET(
att, IF(B2<0.9,2, IF(B2<0.95,1,0)),
crs, IF(C2>=3,2, IF(C2>=1,1,0)),
scr, IF(D2<20,2, IF(D2<40,1,0)),
beh, IF(E2>=2,2, IF(E2=1,1,0)),
pri, IF(F2="Low",1,0),
att+crs+scr+beh+pri
)

‍

(Optional) Weighted version: multiply each component by weights (e.g., att1.5 + crs1 + scr1.5 + beh1 + pri*0.5) and set new cut-scores.

TURN SIGNALS INTO ACTION (30-DAY PLAYBOOK)

• Week 1: Make clean data possible
  
  • Lock rosters and schedules; validate grade/teacher mapping.
  • Standardize course names (“ELA 7”, not “English 2B”).
  • Publish a one-page Data Definitions doc (thresholds and triggers).
• Week 2: Start collecting
  
  • Daily attendance and tardy sweeps; automate a morning export.
  • Launch quick screeners (ELA/Math).
  • Push a student voice micro-survey (3 questions, homeroom time).
• Week 3: Combine and score
  
  • Load data to an Early-Warning sheet or SOLVED dashboard.
  • Generate a Priority Support list per grade/team.
  • Share student-level profiles with teachers.
• Week 4: Meet and intervene
  
  • Run Grade/Team Triage (30–45 min). Agenda:

1. Top Priority list (Risk Index ≥4)
   
   
2. Confirm root cause (attendance vs academics vs belonging)
   
   
3. Assign a single point of contact (SPOC)
   
   
4. Choose a light-lift intervention (below)
   
   
5. Set a 2-week follow-up date
   
   • Log interventions centrally (sheet or dashboard).

‍

Light-lift interventions (2–4 weeks)

• Attendance: family text script + morning call tree; bus/entry escort.
• Coursework: “zero to 70” plan—office hours, retake slot, missing-work tracker.
• Screener low: 15-min daily fluency; math fact sprints; assign skill-group.
• Belonging: advisory check-ins; lunch club invite; peer buddy.

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE (LEADING INDICATORS)

• By Sept 30: 100% students with attended days; 95% screener coverage.
• By Oct 15: Risk Index generated for 100% of roster.
• By Oct 31: 70% of Priority students show improvement on at least one signal (attendance up, missing work down, screener retest up, ODRs down).

DASHBOARDS MAKE THIS SIMPLER

Manual spreadsheets work; dashboards scale it up.

With SOLVED Dashboards you can:

•  Sync daily from SIS/ATS, screeners, and gradebooks.
• See Risk Index + the 5 signals in one student card.
• Filter by grade, teacher, subgroup, IEP/504, multilingual learner.
• Click to intervention log and SPOC assignment.
• Export a Priority Support list for meetings.

NY Public Schools note: SOLVED’s pipeline supports ATS daily refresh so your triage lists are always current.