Friday, February 24, 2012

Charting Who Will Fail, Who Will Not - And Acting On It

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina is tracking how their students are doing, looking for early signs that may lead to school failure. They have a "risk-factor scorecard,"and as they see signs that hint at later failure, the school moves in. Monitoring begins in elementary school. Very proactive, a wonderful idea. Most schools I've worked in have child study teams of some sort, but if I read this correctly, this district doesn't wait until the child is heading toward special education but rather just a child who needs monitoring, extra observing, a cautious eye. Great idea.