ETHS board reviews new quarterly data dashboard; chronic absenteeism flagged as major concern

At the Jan. 13 board meeting, Evanston Township High School staff demonstrated updates to the district’s public data dashboard and highlighted attendance, discipline and academic‑support indicators that administrators said will guide interventions during the rest of the school year.

Research and assessment staff and student‑services leaders walked trustees through the dashboard’s second‑quarter tabs for academic supports (study centers, homework centers and Wildkit Academy), cumulative attendance and discipline measures and student‑services referrals. Staff said attendance and discipline metrics are now shown cumulatively for the semester to give the leadership team better real‑time context.

Key numbers presented to the board included: 15% of students with nine or more total absences (excused and unexcused) and 7% of students with four or more unexcused absences, both presented as cumulative first‑semester figures. Administrators also reported 499 unique students (about 14% of enrollment) with at least one discipline incident in the first semester and described how discipline actions are being disaggregated into categories such as in‑school/out‑of‑school suspensions, restorative actions, detentions and conferences.

Presenters said the dashboard includes disaggregation by race/ethnicity, special education status, free‑and‑reduced‑price‑lunch eligibility and emergent multilingual status. They noted that small counts are suppressed when fewer than 20 students are represented for privacy reasons.

Student‑services staff described new case‑management tools (Panorama) that allow documentation of interventions and coordination across departments. They said Panorama is being used to record referrals and interventions so teams can track what has been tried, who is responsible, and whether interventions succeed before escalating to formal special‑education steps. Special‑education administrators said weekly reviews of at‑risk students and IEP team action‑planning are already happening and that the district is starting earlier outreach with feeder districts to identify at‑risk students before they enter ETHS.

Board members asked several questions about causes and follow‑up steps for chronic absenteeism. Administrators said qualitative reviews show students with high absence rates often face complex family and social challenges; planned responses include layered, documented interventions, home‑visits by multilingual staff when appropriate, and more proactive articulation with sending middle schools.

Trustees praised the visualization and the ability to drill into demographic groupings. Several asked staff to use the dashboard to identify and “go find” the students driving the absentee and discipline numbers so teams can apply targeted supports. Staff said they will continue to publish the dashboard on the district website and will bring back disaggregated and longitudinal analyses in future quarterly reports.