Guide to Decision Making Overview

The MD IDEA Scorecard Guide to Decision Making was developed to provide school-based leadership teams with a step by step process for using information from the Early Warning Alert System Reports to create personalized learning plans for at risk students.

Fourteen conditions have been identified that contribute to high school dropout. Maryland selected four of these conditions mobility, attendance, suspension, and assessments and created predefined reports identifying students considered at risk in each area. These reports, known as the Early Warning Alert System Reports make it easy for schools to access this important information about their students. Accessing the predefined reports can be considered just a first step for schools in their effort to create personalized learning plans aimed at preventing students from dropping out of school.      

The Scorecard Guide to Decision Making can be considered the next step and was developed to provide schools with a systematic process for analyzing individual longitudinal data, examining relationships between the four alert areas and, ultimately, for assigning interventions to personalize learning and advance student performance for those students identified by the Early Warning Alert System Reports. Knowing which questions to ask in order to identify these relationships can be a challenge for schools and teams, in response, the Guide to Decision Making process provides a set of follow up questions specific to each alert area.

These questions are not an exhaustive list, but provide a starting point for determining each student’s individual needs. Asking the right questions can uncover trends in student achievement and behavior and often reveal a how a student’s unique circumstances may be contributing to these trends. With thoughtful discussion and analysis of data, teams cans begin to personalize learning for students at risk.