Some school districts in California are working to establish an “early warning system” to identify middle grade students who are at risk of dropping out, and then to vigorously intervene so they don’t, EdSource Extra reports. So far, seven school districts–including Sacramento City Unified, Vacaville Unified, and Victor Valley Union High School District northeast of Los Angeles–are using a free data tool [1] developed by the National High School Center [2], a division of the American Institutes for Research, to track how students are doing on a range of measures such as attendance, school behavior, and course performance. The districts are part of an emerging national effort by schools to more consciously use data to identify students on the path toward dropping out…