M.S. Applied Data Science - Capstone Chronicles 2025

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which can help see the difference in schools over time and the impact specific programs had on graduation rates. The state of California was able to provide a lot of information for their schools, but many other states have removed or reduced the datasets in education due to privacy policies or other regulations, and it will need a different approach. Using the early warning system in another state will require an adjustment in the model based on the data available. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Professor Erin Cooke for the continuous support, constructive feedback, and encouragement provided during the development of this capstone project. We also thank the faculty and staff of the Applied Data Science Master’s Program at the University of San Diego for creating an academic environment that enabled this work. Finally, we extend our gratitude to our peers in the program for their helpful discussions and collaboration throughout the semester. The authors acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025) for grammar support and language refinement during the preparation of this manuscript. References Austin, G., Hanson, T., Bala, N., & Zheng, C. (2023). Student engagement and well-being in California, 2019-21: Results of the Eighteenth Biennial State California Healthy Kids Survey, Grades 7, 9, and 11. WestEd. https://data.calschls.org/resources/18th_Bie nnial_State_1921.pdf California Department of Education. (2025). California Department of Education . Retrieved October 26, 2025, from https://www.cde.ca.gov/ Chen, T., Wanberg, R. C., Gouioa, E. T., Brown, M. J. S., Chen, J. C.-Y., & Kurt Kraiger, J. J.

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