StudentTracker for High Schools Spotlight: Long-Term Tracking
Can You Access 8 Years of Data on Your Graduates’ Postsecondary Outcomes?
Many high schools and school districts ask questions and collect information on what their graduates plan to do after high school. How many students applied to college? To which schools did they apply? What percentage were accepted to college? Where were they accepted? And how many students accepted offers of admission for the following fall semester?
This data gathering results in a picture of hopes, dreams, plans, and intentions – and it can be very interesting. But it’s not the same as finding out what actually happens to a school’s graduates over time.
StudentTracker® for High Schools is the only service that provides verified college enrollment data that tracks your school’s graduates for up to eight years after graduation. It’s not a snapshot of a moment in time. It’s a story that unfolds over years, as students persist in college, or transfer to a different college, or take some time away from college, or drop out and follow a different track.
Tracking each graduating class over time enables unique insights to emerge.
Tracking each graduating class over time enables unique insights to emerge. It can help you answer important questions, such as:
- What percentage of students plan to enroll in college, but are not enrolled for the first fall semester after high school graduation (a phenomenon called “summer melt”)?
- How many students drop out or stop out during or after the first year of college?
- How many students transfer schools? Are they transferring from a 2-year or 4-year institution?
- What percentage of a graduating class’s students graduate from college in four years?
Using the data’s revelations can help you intervene and improve your students’ postsecondary outcomes. For example:
- Why are some students succumbing to “summer melt,” and what can you do to avoid it?
- Why are students struggling in the first year of college? Are stop-outs primarily financial or academic?
- What can transfer patterns tell you about college preparedness among your school’s graduates?
- Why are students taking longer to graduate from college?
Long-term tracking is a way StudentTracker for High Schools helps you understand the story of your graduates’ postsecondary outcomes.
