Helping Educators Understand Student Pathways
Educational pathways are much different than even a decade ago. Today’s students are more likely to attend multiple colleges, cross state lines, take longer to graduate, stop out, and more on their way to completion. The better that educators understand students’ education behaviors and needs, the better they can help students succeed.
Through our unique data resources, services, and reports, the National Student Clearinghouse provides accurate information to education leaders on how student pathways are evolving so they can better understand and address their students’ needs and help them achieve successful outcomes.
Our privacy commitment:
As a signer of SIIA’s Student Privacy Pledge, the Clearinghouse is helping to safeguard K-12 student personal information.
The Clearinghouse is the first recipient of ikeepsafe.org’s FERPA Badge, which was awarded to our StudentTracker® for High Schools service.
The Clearinghouse received iKeepSafe’s California Student Privacy Badge for our StudentTracker® for High Schools service.
The Clearinghouse is an official supporter of the Student Data Principles, which ensure that student information is protected and used to support students.
What are the different types of student pathways?
Traditional academic
This path leads to degrees and certificates from credit-bearing accredited institutions. Historically, the contribution of community colleges to traditional academic success has been understated. According to a Clearinghouse Snapshot Report, however, 46 percent of baccalaureate degree recipients were previously enrolled at a community college. Four-year completion rates can also be affected by reverse transfers, part-time enrollment, and summer enrollment.
Vocational and high tech career
Following this path, which is part of a lifelong-learning model, enables the student to master and become proficient at specific skills. Credentials, which are awarded based on experiential and classroom learning, apprenticeships, and testing, are not routinely captured by schools or state longitudinal data systems. The collaboration of corporations to develop industry-specific credentials, such as cybersecurity, has turned tracking outcomes into a complex public-private data completion puzzle that cannot be captured by a state longitudinal data system and/or federal unit-level system.
Continuing adult and professional education
The training received by students who take this pathway is frequently paid for by industry. Data surrounding these learning activities are often not shared, captured, or part of a credit-bearing curriculum. A public-private data partnership can help inform this pathway at a national level.
Remediation
Taking and successfully completing this pathway can lead a student to one of the previous pathways. Up to 85 percent of some community college student populations are in remedial programs, making remediation an important part of the community college success story calculation and overall understanding of student success.
The Clearinghouse is singularly positioned to inform the conversation on educational effectiveness because only we can provide reliable, current information on varied student pathways nationwide.
Who is the National Student Clearinghouse?
Since 1993, the National Student Clearinghouse®, has been the trusted and neutral partner to the education community. The Clearinghouse provides educational reporting, verification, and research services to nearly 3,600 colleges and universities and more than 22,000 high schools throughout the U.S. Our services are also used by school districts and state education offices nationwide.
Our education partners realize substantial savings and productivity gains through the redeployment of administrative resources, saving the nation’s colleges more than $750 million annually. Without the Clearinghouse, these costs would be passed on to college students, their families, and taxpayers.
Through our research arm, the National Student Clearinghouse® Research Center™, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we provide educators and policymakers with accurate longitudinal data on student outcomes to enable informed decision making.
OUR MISSION:
The mission of the National Student Clearinghouse is to serve the education and workforce communities and all learners with access to trusted data, related services, and insights.
How we provide value across the education-workforce continuum
The Clearinghouse is THE national source for accurate information on the effectiveness of educational pathways in America today, enabling a better understanding of student success throughout the education-workforce continuum.
PreK-12
- StudentTracker® for High Schools: Service that enables high schools and districts to follow their graduates’ transition to postsecondary education anywhere in the U.S. in order to gauge the effectiveness of their college preparation efforts.
- Research Services: Custom research provided to secondary educational institutions, districts, states, and educational organizations.
- High School Benchmarks: Annual report on the high school-to-college transition rates for public high school graduates.
- K-20 Electronic Transcript & Data Exchange: Solution that enables K-12 schools and districts and postsecondary institutions anywhere in the U.S. to securely exchange electronic transcripts and other student documents with one another.
Postsecondary:
- StudentTracker® for Colleges and Universities: Service that enables postsecondary institutions to receive continuing nationwide collegiate enrollment and degree information on their current students, former students, and admission applicants.
- Research Services: Custom research provided to postsecondary institutions, states, and educational organizations.
- Signature Reports: Series of reports that provide national data revealing patterns and valuable insights on students’ postsecondary, persistence, transfer, and completions.
- Snapshot Reports: Timely examinations of national enrollment trends released throughout the year.
- Current Term Enrollment Estimates: The most up-to-date look at postsecondary enrollment nationwide via reports released every fall and spring.
- Compliance Services: Free services, reports, and analytics to help postsecondary institutions meet the growing compliance and assessment efforts associated with state and federal financial aid programs.
- Data Exchange & Transcript Services: Solutions to enable secure data exchanges between postsecondary institutions and their trading partners and automate the transcript services they provide to their students and alumni.
- Reverse Transfer: National automated platform for exchanging reverse transfer student data.
- Verification Services: Online verification of degree, enrollment, and professional certifications.
Workforce
- Workforce Credentials Coalition: A secure online repository to collect, verify, and report on third-party credential attainment.
- Digital Credential Verifications: Solution that enables individuals to display a badge on select online profiles that shows their credentials are authentic.
- ePortfolio & Skilling Platforms: A secure portal for storing all of an individual’s academic and professional credentials.
How the Clearinghouse works with school data
The Clearinghouse serves as the single point-of-contact for the secure and automated collection of student records nationwide. In return, we provide valuable reporting, verification, data exchange, and research services to the education community.
How we safeguard student privacy
The Clearinghouse is the largest provider of electronic student record exchanges and postsecondary transcript ordering services in the U.S.
Our education partners trust the Clearinghouse because they know we take our commitment to student privacy very seriously. We have maintained the confidentiality and privacy of the student records in our care since our beginning in 1993. The Clearinghouse is scrupulous in our concern for student privacy and compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects students’ privacy rights in their education records, The Higher Education Act, and other applicable laws.
The Clearinghouse is the first recipient of ikeepsafe.org’s FERPA badge, which was awarded to its StudentTracker® for High Schools service. iKeepSafe is the leading digital safety and privacy nonprofit. Companies participating in the iKeepSafe FERPA Assessment program must undergo rigorous annual evaluation of their product, privacy policy and practices, and data security.
The Clearinghouse received iKeepSafe’s California Student Privacy Badge for our StudentTracker® for High Schools service. iKeepSafe is the leading digital safety and privacy nonprofit. Companies participating in the iKeepSafe FERPA Assessment program must undergo rigorous annual evaluation of their product, privacy policy and practices, and data security.
The Clearinghouse is an official supporter of the Student Data Principles, which represent a landmark effort by major national education associations and others to guide the use and protection of student information. Supporters agree to abide by the 10 shared principles to guide their data policies and practices and ensure that student information is protected and used to support students.
What does our solution mean to you?
Students & parents:
A better understanding of the long-term student success of your school and/or district.
Policymakers:
The availability of more accurate, complete, and timely information on long-term student outcomes to enable informed decision making.
State education agencies:
The ability to perform accurate longitudinal, completion, and other outcomes analyses.
Contact us now.
K-12 educators:
Affordable and reliable information on your high school graduates’ transition to postsecondary education anywhere in the U.S., enabling you to accurately measure your college preparation efforts.
Contact us now.
Postsecondary educators:
Access to continuing nationwide collegiate enrollment and degree information on your current students, former students, and admission applicants.
Contact us now.
Policymakers:
To help educators in your area provide you with more complete and accurate information on the success of student outcomes, encourage them to visit studentpathways.org and contact the National Student Clearinghouse.
Parents & Students:
To help your school and/or district provide more complete and accurate information on student outcomes, encourage them to visit studentpathways.org and contact the National Student Clearinghouse.
For information on Clearinghouse services for students and alumni, visit MyStudentCenter.
