New Report: National College Progression Rates

Posted by National Student Clearinghouse Research Center on November 3, 2014

The correlates of transitional success

The latest report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center offers high school-to-college transition rates for public, non-charter high schools across 12 categories, based on demographic and geographic characteristics. It finds, unsurprisingly, that students from higher-income, low-minority, suburban schools had the highest college enrollment (73 percent) and highest persistence rate (remaining enrolled for a second year) in 2013. Among school characteristics, school poverty level was the most consistent correlate to college enrollment rate, regardless of minority or geographic category. The highest immediate college-going rate across all low-income groups (58 percent) was lower by three percentage points than the lowest rate (61 percent) among higher-income groups. Enrollment at two-year colleges was not necessarily higher for students from low-income schools, but two-year colleges were a larger share of total first-fall enrollments for students from low-income high schools and from higher-income, high-minority schools. Regardless of high school type, persistence rates among students enrolled in private colleges and universities were higher than for public institutions, and higher in four-year institutions than in two-year. One interesting fact, noted by Jill Barshay in The Hechinger Report, is that the best 25 percent of low-income, high-minority schools sent at least 60 percent of 2013 graduates to college in fall of 2013. By contrast, the worst 25 percent of high-income schools sent fewer than 60 percent of graduates to college in the fall.

http://nscresearchcenter.org/hsbenchmarks2014/#Introduction