At its first meeting last month after a changing of the guard, the Chicago Board of Education approved changes to the School Quality Ratings Policy (SQRP), the district’s accountability system. In place since 2014, the SQRP rates district and charter schools on a five-point scale (“1+” is the highest and “3” is the lowest) using a weighted system that considers a range of academic and non-academic factors. Notable among the changes is the addition of a “3–8 On-Track” measure for elementary schools—which are K–8 in Chicago—based on grade point average (GPA) and attendance.
Early-warning-indicator and intervention systems date back almost thirty years, and have primarily focused on high schools. The impetus behind these systems was dropout prevention. Two seminal reports, On Track for Success and High School Graduation and College Readiness Indicator Systems, have informed the current efforts to develop and refine early-warning systems, with Chicago at the forefront. While the specific measures used may vary, what they often have in common is collectively known as the “ABCs”—attendance, behavior, and course performance—or “BAG” (behavior, attendance, and grades)...