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Student involvement is consequential - students who lack extracurricular involvements are 57% more likely to drop out, have a 0.88 lower GPA, and engage in more at-risk behaviors than their more involved peers (citation). The sense that students know someone cares if they come to school is known as “school connectedness”. When schools actively track which students are (and are not) involved on campus, they are missing an early indicator as to which students feel disconnected

Family engagement is a strong predictor of student success, leading to improved academic outcomes and stronger attendance particularly for middle and high school students. But generic mass emails do not provide parents with the personalized, actionable information unique to their student’s needs. The tradeoff is acute - curating personalized communications for thousands of students requires dedicated staff time that we simply do not have. Student Information Systems (SIS)

How did Target know a high school girl was pregnant before her parents? In brief, Google collected enough data from that girl’s online behavior (when you think about it, we type much of our lives into the Google search bar…) to discover reliable signals that she was pregnant, Google sold those insights to Target, then Target, well, targeted her with coupons for baby products that Dad did not appreciate. All the data that Google collects about us means nothing without the to

In October 1987, Paul O'Neill gave his first speech as the new CEO of Alcoa, a massive aluminum manufacturing company. A room full of anxious Wall Street investors waited to hear how he would cut costs and increase profits. But O'Neill didn’t talk about profit margins. He didn't talk about revenue projections. Instead, he said, "I want to talk to you about worker safety." The room went silent. O'Neill continued, "I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America. I int

Schools have plenty of other issues to deal with… students not getting to class on time should not be one of them! At Great Oak High School where I teach, our attendance director was "blown away by the impact" when we reduced total tardies by 36% in the first year. Using the same spreadsheet application, another high school outside our district saw a 75% reduction in tardies over two years. Several other middle and high schools we have worked with have reduced tardies betwe

Somewhere, walking in a hallway right now, a student feels like a ghost. They walk past the trophy cases and the lockers, but they don’t feel like they "fit" at school. They sit in the back of assemblies, their name is rarely called unless for a missing assignment, and they know that if they don’t show up tomorrow, no one will care to mention it. As school leaders, this keeps us up at night. We didn't enter education to analyze database records; we entered it to change live

It’s 1st period Geometry. The bell rings and students settle in. But there’s a gap in the third row... Leo isn't here. Again. To our Student Information System, Leo’s absence is just an "A". But to the students sitting around that empty desk, Leo’s absences send a contagious signal. 1. The "Empty Chair" Effect When Leo disappears from class, his friends don't just see an empty seat - they see a choice. “If Leo isn't here and school carries on like normal, does it really