COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwired - Apr 9, 2013) - Pilot studies of a new identification, referral and monitoring program, Mazin EnCompass, (www.mazineducation.com), demonstrate dramatic increases in program referral and completion rates for students at risk for violence, suicide, bullying, substance abuse or dropping out.
The program was developed to address issues identified by Dr. Mariam Azin while working with districts on whole-school improvement initiatives.
"We realized that schools were spending thousands of dollars on intervention programs that were not being utilized," says Azin. "We needed to fix the holes in the pipeline. Students cannot benefit from services they are not receiving."
Mazin EnCompass™ is an early identification, referral and monitoring system designed to help schools ensure that at-risk students receive the academic, mental health or other services they need. The software includes sophisticated algorithms to automatically flag students who are demonstrating warning signs of dropping out or experiencing a mental health crisis based on multiple risk factors.
"We know what the warning signs are," says Dr. Azin. "If we can connect the dots between attendance patterns, grade patterns, behavior and other risk factors, we can predict the probability that students will, for instance, drop out. Mazin EnCompass™ automates this for districts."
On average, in the districts Azin studied, few students were getting referred to mental health and other programs. Those who were often never actually connected with the programs, and an even smaller number completed them.
In a four-year pilot study in one district, referrals increased 472 percent after implementing Mazin Encompass™. A district that began using the software in spring 2012 reported a 620 percent increase in one semester.
"We need to give schools the tools they need to be proactive rather than reactive," Azin says. "I developed Mazin EnCompass to help schools find the students who are being overlooked by our current systems, and make sure they get the help they desperately need."
About Dr. Mariam Azin
Dr. Mariam Azin is president and CEO of Mazin Education, an educational company focused on software solutions that help schools to better assess, identify and serve at-risk students. Dr. Azin holds a doctorate in applied social psychology and has more than 20 years' experience in educational research and evaluation. She has been the principal investigator on numerous large-scale evaluation efforts related to students, currently serving as joint principal investigator on three federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students evaluations.
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