Prepare Reports

Before School Year

By preparing reports before the school year begins, the team transforms their student success system into a proactive alert engine by establishing which data are needed to identify student needs early, alert appropriate staff, and provide and monitor interventions to drive on-time graduation for their students. This process requires a technical infrastructure capable of integrating diverse data sources into automated, role-appropriate visualizations like heat maps and on-track dashboards. By using the Optimal Infrastructure Checklist, teams can move beyond static data pulls to automated workflows that flag students approaching intervention thresholds and trigger real-time alerts for appropriate staff.

Technical Infrastructure Choose Plays Examples in Practice

Technical Infrastructure

Before diving into the technical configuration steps to prepare automated report generation, we encourage your team to ensure your technical infrastructure is ready for this effort. In the case you aren’t sure, this checklist will generate a set of questions you can ask the district or provider for clarity. In the case where you know the system(s) cannot do something, this checklist offers considerations for building workaround solutions.

0 of 7 answered

0% complete

Data Integrity & Governance

Is your system set up to aggregate indicators from centralized source systems and other data/systems for incorporation into a student profile for a holistic view and use in reports for analysis?

System Configuration & Customization

Is your system set up to provide reports specifically for use and further customization by Student Success teams to facilitate regular meeting protocols and objectives?

Workaround Option 1:
Student success teams should use established agendas and regular data protocols to meet students needs at different times of the year (e.g., it’s important to look at credit accumulation and course completion to determine who will need to go to summer school to get back on track or how to plan to catch up in the year ahead, whereas attendance and assignment completion should be considered and discussed in an ongoing way). Teams should identify what reports they need to support them with the various discussions that need to happen at specific points in the year. If those reports have not been created in the system, users should check the FAQs and resources to determine whether existing reports may be duplicated and modified, custom reports may be created, and new or revised reports can be shared among team members. If possible, users should create the reports they need for their ongoing discussions.
Workaround Option 2:
If the system will not allow users to create the reports they need for ongoing student success meetings, existing reports may be downloaded and modified in advance of the group’s discussions. Modification may be as simple as reformating the data, generating a visualization, or pulling two reports together with a VLOOKUP. Assign or rotate responsibility for reviewing the data and populating the template for each meeting to build capacity and balance the administrative load.
Ai-enabled workaround:
If the district has a closed and secure AI tool and allows the upload of student identifying information and data, export the raw data needed for student success team tracking and discussion, identify the template the data should be included in, and prompt the AI tool to create the report or dashboards needed. Consider including instructions for how outlier data values should be treated (e.g., if there is a null value, treat it like a zero). Prompt the AI to explain the steps taken to compile the data and to share any inconsistencies, risks, or issues with the data and how they have been resolved or attended to in the resulting report. If any of the explanations are not clear or do not make sense, prompt the AI to alter the approach it takes to developing the dashboard or report. If the report is rerun, prompt the AI to call out the specific changes in each iteration from the prior version(s). Remember to at least spot check the data against the source data to ensure accuracy. Ensure responsible use of AI by referring to the Considerations for AI Use section of this playbook.

System Configuration & Customization

Is your system set up to incorporate custom indicator thresholds set at the school- or district-level to define off-track status based on holisitc indicators?

Workaround Option 1:
Check the system FAQs and resources to determine whether thresholds are supported and if they can be customized. If not, explore whether it is possible to turn on a cut point in reports and data visualizations.
Workaround Option 2:
If the system will not support the inclusion of threshold or cut points in the data, export the data into Excel and use conditional formatting to visually mark values as above and below one or multiple thresholds and/or set a target line when pulling the Excel data into a chart. Analytics tools such as Power BI or Tableau are also designed to report out on and display threshold data, if the centrallly provided system will not support it.
Ai-enabled workaround:
If the district has a closed and secure AI tool and allows the upload of student identifying information and data, export the raw data needed for student success team tracking and discussion, identify the template the data should be included in, and prompt the AI tool to create the report or dashboards needed with the thresholds that need to be applied and how data falling above, in, or below the thresholds should be identified (e.g., using specific colors). Consider including instructions for how outlier data values should be treated (e.g., if there is a null value, treat it like a zero). Prompt the AI to explain the steps taken to compile the data and to share any inconsistencies, risks, or issues with the data and how they have been resolved or attended to in the resulting report. If any of the explanations are not clear or do not make sense, prompt the AI to alter the approach it takes to developing the dashboard or report. If the report is rerun, prompt the AI to call out the specific changes in each iteration from the prior version(s). Remember to at least spot check the data against the source data to ensure accuracy. Ensure responsible use of AI by referring to the Considerations for AI Use section of this playbook.

Actionable Analysis & Logic

Is your system set up to use programmed logic to flag students who are triggering thresholds (e.g., moving off track), missing required courses, or not meeting intervention dosage requirements?

Workaround Option 1:
Check the system FAQs and resources to determine whether/how data can be flagged to elevate particular conditions (e.g., falling below a particular score, missing specific information, etc.). Adjust settings and display options, as necessary and permitted, to enable data-specific flags and triggers.
Workaround Option 2:
If the system will only automate flags for some types of data or restricts users to a limited number of flags, export a subset of the data into Excel and use conditional formatting to visually mark values as above and below one or multiple thresholds. Analytics tools such as Power BI or Tableau are also designed to report out on and display threshold data, if the centrallly provided system will not support it. Ideally, set flags in the primary system for data that is higher-impact and for data that is more transactional and for which there are valuable insights or actions tied to real-time alerts. Data that change infrequently may be lower priority.
Ai-enabled workaround:
If the system cannot flag data based on specific conditions, predictive indicator data and data tied to graduation requirements should be exported on a regular cadence and formatted in Excel for readability (e.g., conditional formatting, charts, relevant calculations and aggregation, etc.) or an analytics system should be put into place for ongoing use. Unless a databridge or automated integration is available, the data that should be prioritized for external analysis should be those that are updated at key points in the year. Without real-time, automated integration, most attendance, intervention progress, assigment-level, and other transactional data would be too cumbersome to manage outside of the systems in which they are collected and so must be analyzed and understood separately. If the district has a closed and secure AI tool and allows the upload of student identifying information and data, consider using AI to format and analyze data exports from a variety of sources. Ensure responsible use of AI by referring to the Considerations for AI Use section of this playbook.

Actionable Analysis & Logic

Is your system set up to provide a list of available interventions and resources that align with district-specific definitions of off-track status?

Workaround Option 1:
Check to see if the system offers a library of interventions or if one has been created and provided by the district. If none is available within the system, check with the district to see if one is available for use external to the system provided. An external library can be used as a reference during regular review discussions and analysis of intervention uptake and outcomes.
Workaround Option 2:
If no library of interventions is available, check the system FAQs and resources to see if intervention information, links, and resouces can be stored in the system for refence by student success team members.
Workaround Option 3:
If the system cannot support the storage and reference of intervention information, consider keeping a shared document for crowdsourcing and tracking interventions as they are introduced. Make sure to tag each intervention to one or more predictive or well-being indicators, subject/topic, grade-appropriateness (if not all), dosage recommendation, implementation details (e.g., afterschool, within class, asynchronous), and individual/small group/whole class. Add relevant links or details. Have users include the names of selected interventions in the system (ideally using one or multiple dropdowns rather than an open text field) for tracking purposes. At regular intervals, ask educators facilitating interventions to fill out a brief form with feedback related to the resources provided and explerience implementing the intervention.

Responsive Communication & Alerts

Is your system set up to incorporate reminders for staff related to data entry deadlines?

Intuitive Insights & Dashboards

Is your system set up to generate easy-to-read visualizations of on- and off-track status by indicator for customizable student groupings (e.g., grade, class, by status, cohorts)?

Workaround Option 1:
Check the system FAQs and resources to determine whether/how data visualizations can be adapted, customized, or added—and by whom. Adjust or add visualizations to meet user needs.
Workaround Option 2:
For simpler data or visualization needs, export relevant data into Excel and use the chart functionality to customize one or multiple displays. To support multi-variable displays, longitudinal reporting, or more robust drilldown capability, consider a data analytics tool such as Power BI or Tableau.
Ai-enabled workaround:
If the district has a closed and secure AI tool and allows the upload of student identifying information and data, export the raw data needed for student success team tracking and discussion, identify specific visualizations or chart types to include the the data in, and prompt the AI tool to generate the visualizations. Remember to specify how the data should be labeled, how outlier data values should be treated (e.g., if there is a null value, treat it like a zero), and how it should distingush between variables (e.g., colors, symbols, etc.). Prompt the AI to explain the steps taken to compile the data and to share any inconsistencies, risks, or issues with the data and how they have been resolved or attended to in the resulting visualization. If any of the explanations are not clear or do not make sense, prompt the AI to alter the approach it takes to developing the visualization. If the visualization is rerun, prompt the AI to call out the specific changes in each iteration from the prior version(s). Remember to at least spot check the data against the source data to ensure accuracy. Ensure responsible use of AI by referring to the Considerations for AI Use section of this playbook.

Continue to Plays

Prepare Reports

Technical Infrastructure

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Playbook Saved

Retrieve Playbook

Prepare Reports

Technical Infrastructure

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Optimal System

Questions for Provider:

Questions for District:

Prepare Reports

Search

Playbook Saved

Retrieve Playbook