National Student Clearinghouse® Expands StudentTracker Service to Provide Affordable Student Outcome Reporting for High Schools, Districts, and States

HERNDON, Va., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Student Clearinghouse today announced the availability of enhanced student outcomes reporting through its StudentTracker(SM) for High Schools service. This expanded capability provides high schools, districts, and states with a low-cost way to obtain professional-quality reports that track the continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion of their high school alumni. The Clearinghouse, a non-profit organization, acts as the agent for more than 3,300 U.S. postsecondary institutions and more than 3,000 high schools, providing them with educational verification and research services. StudentTracker is the only nationwide student research and reporting system. Through the service, users can query the Clearinghouse's national database containing current student records on more than 92% of U.S. higher education enrollment. The data, which covers all types of institutions (e.g., 2-/4-year, graduate, public/private, trade, and vocational), also enables comparisons between in-state versus out-of-state enrollment.

StudentTracker's new outcomes reporting provides users with more than 30 easy-to-read color graphs and charts summarizing their high school graduates' postsecondary performance nationwide – information that is available exclusively through the Clearinghouse. The service offers budget-strapped high schools and districts, as well as states, with an affordable and accurate alternative for obtaining student outcome data.  In addition, StudentTracker enables users to track their high school alumni through eight years of progression in higher education, providing a low-cost way for users to create longitudinal reports.  Like all Clearinghouse services, StudentTracker is FERPA compliant (to further protect student information, Social Security numbers are not used to produce StudentTracker reports).

"Over the past several years, the Clearinghouse has become aware that high schools and districts across the country simply don't have the financial resources or research expertise to produce their own student outcomes analyses," said Clearinghouse President Rick Torres. "Through StudentTracker's new outcomes reporting capabilities, the Clearinghouse does it for them."

The new outcomes reporting enhancement was rolled out to nearly 1,700 existing StudentTracker for High Schools users last August, in order to obtain their feedback and suggestions for improvement. In a December 2009 survey, users universally embraced StudentTracker as an exceptional value, with nearly 90% of respondents stating that they would recommend StudentTracker to other high schools and school districts.  

"In its first 12 months, StudentTracker's outcome reporting has been used by secondary educators nationwide to institute curriculum changes, obtain grants and other funding, as well as fulfill state and federal reporting requirements," noted Torres. "As importantly, it has provided our users with a reliable way to assess the impact of changes in educational policies on student access, enrollment, progression, and completion at both the high school and district levels."

The Clearinghouse recently announced a new partnership with the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) to promote StudentTracker to AASA members, including more than 13,000 school superintendents and other education leaders in the United States. AASA members that are interested in enrolling their high school or district in StudentTracker or obtaining more information should contact Bill Clendaniel at 703-969-2921 or [email protected].

States (including existing StudentTracker clients) that would like to enroll in StudentTracker's new outcomes reporting service or learn more should contact [email protected].

Additional information on StudentTracker, including a sample report and published studies from high school and district clients, is available at www.studentclearinghouse.org/highschools.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL STUDENT CLEARINGHOUSE®

The National Student Clearinghouse (a non-profit formed in 1993) is the unique and trusted source for higher education enrollment and degree verifications. The Clearinghouse serves as a single point of contact for the collection and timely exchange of accurate and comprehensive enrollment, degree and certificate records on behalf of its more than 3,300 participating higher education institutions, which represent over 92% of the national enrollment.

Through its verification and reporting services, the Clearinghouse saves higher education institutions cumulatively more than a hundred million dollars annually. Most Clearinghouse services are provided to colleges and universities at little or no charge, including enhanced transcript and research services, enabling institutions to redistribute limited staff and budget resources to more important student service efforts. All Clearinghouse services are operated in full compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

In addition, the Clearinghouse provides accurate FERPA-compliant verifications to student loan providers, employers, student credit issuers, student health insurance providers, the U.S. Department of Education, and others who access its registry more than 100 million times annually.

For more information, visit www.studentclearinghouse.org.

SOURCE National Student Clearinghouse