The first year of high school is challenging for students (Felmlee, 2018). Research indicates that, during that year, students are more likely to show declines in key measures of school engagement and academic success including Grade Point Average (GPA) and attendance rate, both of which are predictive of high school graduation (e.g., Allensworth et al., 2014; Kieffer, Marinell & Neugebauer, 2014; Neild, 2009). For many years, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has been implementing two initiatives—the Early Warning Indicator (EWI), and the Transition Program (TP)—that aim to identify and provide targeted supports to students in transition from middle school to high school.
In 2018, SFUSD and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities at Stanford University came together to conduct research to better understand which students are identified by the initiatives, how they are supported and what their educational outcomes are, as well as what factors facilitate or limit the implementation of the initiatives. The research design includes longitudinal analysis of students’ administrative data, a survey of and interviews with district and school personnel, document review, and making-meaning meetings between researchers and district staff. The study is still underway. This brief summarizes learning to date.