Finding the Root Cause: Using Attendance Data to Explain Academic Struggles

Root cause ID

None Visible

New

Data combined

No Yes

Unified

The Problem

Students were failing academically and the default response was more academic intervention — tutoring, small groups, extra practice. But the interventions weren't working for a significant subset of students. The team couldn't figure out why some students responded to intervention and others didn't. The data to answer the question existed — but it lived in separate systems. Academic data was in the assessment platform, attendance data was in the SIS, and behavior data was tracked elsewhere. No one was looking at all three together.

The Plan

1

Before assigning academic intervention, check attendance

If attendance is below 90%, address attendance first. More tutoring doesn't help a student who isn't in the building.

Data Wall Student Profile See example

Elmer Suite → Data Wall

StudentMetric 1Metric 2Status

Student A At Risk Watch Flagged

Student B On Track On Track ✓

Stoplight colors show who needs attention at a glance.
2

Dual-track plans for students with both gaps

Attendance outreach AND academic support. Track both on the same dashboard.

Data Wall Events See example

Elmer Suite → Events

Outreach logged
Family contacted. Notes recorded for team visibility.
Today · 10:30 AM

Status updated
Student returned. Moved to monitoring.
Yesterday

All events visible to the team. No meetings needed to stay in sync.
3

Monitor whether improving attendance improves academics

The dashboard makes the correlation visible. Resources redirected to the right students.

Data Wall Analytics