Poverty Key To Non-College Attendance

The High SchoolBenchmarks Report: National College Progression Rates was created by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in 2013. The inaugural High School Benchmarks report, released October 2013, covered high schools graduating more than 2.3 million students over three years. The increase in data coverage this year reflects the growing number of high schools and districts that are able to measure the college enrollment and progression outcomes of their graduates through the National Student Clearinghouse’s StudentTracker℠ educational research service.

In addition to its expanded coverage, the second annual report, for the first time, provides high school-to-college transition rates for graduates of public non-charter, public charter, and private high schools, along with new data on the high school-to-college transition of students. For students of public non-charter high schools the rates are reported in 12 categories based on the school-level demographic and geographic characteristics.

This year’s report introduces, for the first time, an additional resource in the form of percentile distributions of school-level outcomes in each category. The percentile distributions show that, even among the lowest-performing categories of schools, there is often a wide range of outcomes, with some schools performing markedly above or below the average. Access to percentiles gives high schools stronger tools for measuring their students’ progress.

Report findings for the class of 2013, who enrolled in college the following fall, include:

·                 Among public non-charter schools, the poverty level was the most consistent correlate to college enrollment rates.

·                 College enrollment rates in the first fall after graduation for students from low income public high schools in 2013 ranged from 47 percent to 58 percent.

·                 Among higher income public schools, high minority schools had a lower college-going rate than low minority schools.

·                 Among high minority public schools, there were no differences in college enrollment rates between urban, suburban, or rural locales.

·                 Students from low income public high schools were more likely to attend two-year colleges. Almost half of all first fall enrollments for students graduating from low income schools were in two-year colleges.

·                 Among a smaller sample of public charter schools that provided data to the Clearinghouse (13 percent of all charter schools, enrolling 16 percent of charter school students), 60 percent of students who graduated from public charter schools in 2013 enrolled in college immediately after high school graduation in fall 2013.  

             §Among a smaller sample of private schools that provided data to the Clearinghouse (3 percent of all private schools, enrolling 10 percent of private school students), 86 percent of graduates from private high schools enrolled in college immediately after high school graduation in fall 2013.

The report also found that students from higher income and low The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has released their second annual national level report offering benchmarks for high schools to compare their graduates’ college transition rates nationwide, including those serving low income and minority students. The report covers public and private high schools graduating more than 3.5 million students during the past four years or over a quarter of all U.S. high school graduates each year, from all 50 states.